


Guardian of the Fan

by Res_CVX



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant (Harry Potter), Crossover, Dimension Travel, Family, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-29
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2017-11-17 07:51:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Res_CVX/pseuds/Res_CVX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the massacre, the scroll that always hung in the family room of the Uchiha Clan's head had opened, and with the opening of that scroll, the fate of the ones that remain have changed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

His heart broke, even though his face revealed nothing. Seeing his little brother lying like that on the ground was painful, especially since he was the reason for it, especially since he could nothing to help him. He continued to gaze at his brother's unmoving form when he felt something in the air. Looking around, he sensed nothing, yet it felt as though there was a presence nearby. 

_Go._

He flinched and turned around. There was no one there.

_What are you doing? You have a mission to complete. Go._

"Who are you? Where are you?" he whispered. He didn't want to admit it, but he was feeling unnerved. There was someone around, but they had no chakra, yet they were doing something to make him feel like this.

_Stay any longer and the ANBU will come to arrest you._

He knew that. He knew the ANBU would be here at any moment, but all his years of training vanished from his mind the moment he saw his brother pass out.

_I'll take care of him, so go, or your family's sacrifice will be for nothing._

Feeling suddenly came into his legs. With one last look at his brother, he left, but not before taking a stray kunai and cutting a line through his headband. Nothing will be the same again.

••••••

The rain matched his mood perfectly. As he walked through the Uchiha district, memories flashed in front of his eyes; various relatives smiling at him, or just nodding in acknowledgement as he walked by. It was all gone, empty. Looking up, he was surprised that he somehow managed to walk to his own home. It was the last place he wanted to be at, but he kept going through the door, taking off his shoes, and calling out that he back. There was no answer.

Walking through the house brought back the painful memories of the night before. He didn't cry though. He couldn’t. He continued walking throughout the house when he finally reached _that_ place. He hesitated at the door like he had the night before. With shaky hands, he opened the door and walked in.

Their bodies were removed, he noted numbly. There was a chalk outline and a few blood stains on the ground, but other than that, the room was empty. He couldn't hold it in any longer. He fell to his knees and started crying. His grief, his pain, and his loneliness that he had tried so hard to keep in control and hide were now being poured out.

"Let all the pain out," a voice muttered in his ear. Arms surrounded him and turned him around to embrace him. Despite the obvious concern that a stranger was here, in a sealed off location, he pressed his face into the chest of the stranger and continued to sob. The stranger merely stroked his hair and whispered soothing words.

It was almost fifteen minutes later when he stopped shaking, yet he still clung to the stranger. To his embarrassment, the person's clothes were wet, but the person didn't seem to mind.

"Do you feel better, Sasuke?" he asked. The boy gave a small jump.

"How do you know my name?" The man gave a small chuckle.

"I know the name of everyone who had ever been in this clan, by either birth or marriage."

"Who are you?" he asked the stranger. The stranger gave him a thoughtful look. His green eyes were calculating something.

"I don't really have a name," the stranger finally replied. Sasuke frowned, yet he wasn't able be suspicious of him. It was like he knew him, though Sasuke could have sworn that they had never met before.

"Why are you here?" He was extremely unnerved. He was being trained to be suspicious of people, yet here he was, blindly trusting some stranger.

"You don't trust me?" Sasuke looked at him, startled, but the stranger was still smiling.

"I-I'm sorry, but at the Academy, they taught us to not…" The stranger patted his head, laughing.

"Of course you shouldn't trust me," he started, once his laughing got under control. "We never met before. You'd make a terrible shinobi if you did, but I, in fact, do want you to trust me."

"Then, can you tell me what you are doing here?" Sasuke said, taking a few steps back. The stranger frowned slightly.  

"I have all rights to be here," he muttered. Sasuke blinked. "Look at me." And looking up at his face, Sasuke gasped. It was there for a split second, but it was enough. The stranger was still smiling, though it turned into a sad one.

"Y-You’re an Uchiha. B-But, how?"

"It's complicated," the stranger muttered, looking away. Sasuke, however, was feeling oddly giddy. He wasn't alone. There was still another relative, though he knew nothing about him.

"How?" Sasuke repeated. The stranger stood up, his clothes swaying. Sasuke did a double take on his clothes. They were rather old fashioned.

"I don't think we should discuss this here." Sasuke blinked before remembering where they were. He glanced at the spot where his brother had slain his parents. He started shivering when he felt the other's hand on his shoulder. Steering him around, the stranger led him outside. It had started raining, and they were both soaked, but Sasuke didn't care. He was led to the other side of his clan's district, and was led into an old building that looked like it was uninhabited for years. Through his numbness, he tried to recall why no one went to this part of the district, but he drew up a blank. All he knew was that no one came here.

They both entered the ruined building and Sasuke was surprised that the inside didn't match the outside. There was nothing fancy there, but it was moderately furnished with the necessities and a fair few accessories.

"An illusion," the stranger muttered. Sasuke didn't know if he was talking about the inside or the outside. After being led into what looked like a living room, the stranger told him to sit down. When he did, the stranger left to grab something. Sasuke let his mind wander to the Academy. He wouldn't dare to think of last night…

"Drink." Sasuke felt something press onto his lips and reflexively opened his mouth and swallowed. Suddenly feeling calm, he watched as the stranger sat down across from him and waited expectantly. Blinking a few times to get his bearings, Sasuke straightened up in his seat.

"Can I ask now?" The man nodded. "Who are you?" The man chuckled slightly.

"I believe I already answered that, I have no name." Sasuke shook his head.

"Everyone has a name," he said earnestly. "Everyone needs a name." The man looked thoughtful. "I need to call you something."

"Well, since you insist, I did have a name at one point."

"What was it," Sasuke asked, eagerly. Any sort of distraction was welcomed was what he kept telling himself.

"Harry."

"Hari?" The man chuckled.

"Close enough."

"How do have the—" Sasuke stopped, and took a deep breath. "Are we related?" The man shook his head. Sasuke opened his mouth, but Harry held up a hand.

"Your original question was about the sharingan, right?" Sasuke nodded. "It'll be easier to get that out of the way." Harry paused, trying to carefully word what he was going to say.

"Just say it," Sasuke said, curiosity bubbling inside of him.

"Well, for one, I'm not human," Harry said bluntly. He smirked when Sasuke was staring at him with wide eyes.

"Huh?" All thoughts of the night before and this morning flew out the window. Not human… Was this his way of trying to be funny?

"Wait here." Harry stood up, and left the room. He returned carrying an all too familiar scroll. Placing it on the table between them, Harry looked back up at him. "Does this look familiar?" Sasuke stared at the scroll.

"Our family room..." Harry nodded. Sasuke continued to stare at the scroll. His father had mentioned something about a spirit being sealed in there, but at the time Sasuke had completely ignored him since at that moment, his brother had come back from a long mission. Looking at it now, Sasuke was able to see that the scroll had opened.

"Do you know what was in here?" Sasuke looked at the scroll, then at Harry, then back at the scroll.

"You." Harry leaned back in his seat.

"Did your father tell you?" Sasuke nodded.

"What kind of a spirit are you?" Harry looked up to the ceiling.

"Guardian." Sasuke suddenly stood up. He walked around the table to reach Harry. Grabbing the front of his robes, Harry looked into angry black eyes.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU PROTECT THEM?" Tears of anger ran down his face. Harry looked straight into his eyes. The amount of guilt and remorse in his eyes made Sasuke let go of him and take a step back. "Why...?"

"He blocked me." From the look on Sasuke's face, he didn't understand. "Your father trapped me in there," Harry clarified. "There was no way for me to do anything."

"Why would he so that? Why did he prevent you from doing your job?" Sasuke asked in disbelief. Harry shook his head.

"I don't know."

"Were you released when he was - when he was k-killed?" Harry nodded. Sasuke sat down next to him. Harry briefly wondered whether or not he needed another dose of Calming Draught, but Sasuke wasn't being hysterical. "What will you do now?" Harry gave him a look.

"I'll be doing my job." Sasuke turned to look at him properly.

"Bu-but, they're dead! What could you possibly do?" Harry gave him an odd look.

"What are you, a flobberworm?" Sasuke blinked.

"Huh?"

"Never mind," Harry said quickly. Old habits die hard. He mentally shook his head, and focused on Sasuke. Grabbing his hands, he forced the boy to look straight in his eyes.

"Whatever the reason, it does not excuse the fact that I have failed my duty as a guardian. I will not fail you as well. Until the day comes that you are able to fully function without me, I will be here for you." Sasuke didn't answer. He looked deeply into Harry's eyes, looking for any hint of falsehood. It was when he looked away that Harry brought him close for a hug.

"You're not allowed to leave," Sasuke muttered in his chest. Harry laughed.

"Of course." Sasuke pulled away. 

"I can't tell anyone about you, right?" Harry smiled sadly.

"It has to be a secret." Sasuke frowned.

"Does that include—?”

"Yes, it includes the Hokage." Sasuke frowned at his tone, but didn't say anything. "Go back to the hospital, and stay there until you get housing arrangements."

"You'll find me?" Harry nodded. Sasuke looked uneasy.

"What is it?" Harry asked, concerned.

"You're still hiding something from me?" Harry didn't say anything. Sasuke sighed. "Can you ever tell me?" Harry ran a hand through his hair.

"I will not lie to you, so I will not say anything. But, I will, one day, tell you the truth." Sasuke nodded.

"Thank you." Harry sighed. One topic avoided.

"About your brother—"

"That man is not my brother!" Sasuke growled. Harry blinked before mentally sighing.

"Please keep an open mind." Leaning down, he made sure Sasuke made eye contact with him. "You don’t know the whole situation, so don’t make any assumptions unless you have enough information to prove that you are right."

"Does that mean he lied?" Sasuke whispered. Harry kept his face blank.

"Certain things were smudged, but I will not tell you more." Harry stood up and left the room. Sasuke followed him.

"Why won't you tell me?" Sasuke demanded. Harry gave him a side glance.

"You're too young." Sasuke opened his mouth, but then closed it again. Harry hid his smirk. Sasuke knew he wasn't going to win.

"Is there anything you can tell me?" Sasuke finally asked. Harry stayed silent. It was when they reached the entrance to the estate that Harry finally spoke.

"Head to the hospital now." Sasuke nodded sullenly. He exited the estate and headed back towards the main village area. "Your brother cares for you deeply." Sasuke froze and turned around, but Harry was already gone. A sudden sound alerted him the arrival of the ANBU. He stayed silent as they escorted him back.

••••••

After a long lecture from the head doctor about the safety of the ‘last Uchiha’, the ANBU, under the orders of the Hokage, transported him to an apartment fairly close to the Uchiha grounds. After checking around as a safety precaution, the ANBU left Sasuke alone in his new apartment. Waiting a good ten minutes for the coast to be completely cleared (they were _‘ANBU’_ for goodness sake), Sasuke called out, "Harry!"

"Huh?" Startled, Sasuke walked towards the bedroom to see Harry groggily rubbing his eyes. "Are they gone?" Blinking his shock away, Sasuke closed the door behind him.

"How did they not sense you?"

"I have my secrets." Sasuke smiled. 

"You sound drunk."

"Meh." Harry sat up and got off the bed. "As much comfortable as it is, you’re the one that needs it."

"I'm not sleepy!" Sasuke retorted. Harry raised an eyebrow and gave him The Look. Cowed, Sasuke stayed still. Harry quickly grabbed some pajamas, and tossed it to Sasuke, who caught it. Sasuke quickly left to go get changed, and within a minute he was back. Harry didn’t miss the look of relief that crossed his face when he saw that Harry was still there. Sasuke slipped into the bed, and Harry started stroking his hair. Sasuke eyes began to droop.

"Don't leave," he muttered sleepily.

"Don't worry, I'll still be here." Harry waited until Sasuke fell asleep before bringing out a camera. Snapping a picture, Harry hid the camera. "Sweet dreams." Harry left the room. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Harry was bored. He was so bored, he decided to go through and clean the whole apartment…twice. He even cooked, and had everything set up, ready to go, and he was _still_ bored. Staring at the clock, he slammed his head on the table. He still had another hour to go until the Academy was done for the day. This was so annoying. If it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t actually exist, he would have probably went and looked for a job or something.

While the civilians themselves were quite dim (probably the same if not dimmer than the wizards of his time), the ANBU and the ninjas themselves were not. The less attention he brought to himself, the better. Unfortunately, almost every adult knew about the massacre (though not the true cause), and kept giving Sasuke pitying looks. Because of that, there was no way Harry could be seen publicly with him. Sasuke, though obviously not pleased, understood (a little). However, that didn’t stop him from giving a glare to anyone who gave him a pitying look.

Harry was able to do a few things about that situation though. Seeing that he _was_ a spirit, he could turn invisible, and almost non-detectable (which amazed Sasuke). That way, he would be able to accompany the nine year-old unseen, though the drawback is that they really couldn’t talk to each other, and Sasuke had to, every so often, reach out to make sure Harry was still there.

Another thing Harry was curious about was his magic, or rather, could shinobi sense it like they could sense chakra? Though Harry could still use his magic, his reservoir of magic, oddly enough, depleted easily. He had no idea why, and no matter how much he examined himself (both with the sharingan and a little magic), he couldn’t find out the reason why. Also, it was obvious to him, that some sort of combination of chakra and magic allowed Harry to be invisible. If shinobi could sense magic, then Harry was screwed. To confirm or deny this, Harry had to create a way to test this.

This led to him doing a few experiments (pranks) on the few ninjas that were by themselves. His results so far were that genins couldn’t sense him at all no matter what he did, and chunins couldn’t sense his presence when he was nearby. However, Harry had yet to test whether or not they could sense him using magic.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Harry glanced at the clock and stood up. He had another half hour to kill until Sasuke was done at the Academy, and he had a good idea of what he wanted to do. Stretching, he transfigured his clothes into something more suitable and placed a few notice-me-not charms on himself before leaving out the door. During first few months after the massacre, there was always at least one ANBU member watching the apartment, forcing Harry to apparate in and out of the building (he and his magic weren’t pleased by this). Since one of them would still come by every so often, the barrier Harry created around the apartment (which depleted even more magic) had to stay up, lest they discover that Sasuke wasn’t living alone.

Once out, Harry headed straight towards the market place. He needed somewhere crowded, and that place never failed him on that. Scanning the area, Harry tried to locate the soon-to-be helper (victim) of his experiment. Grinning, Harry walked towards the unfortunate chunin. Scanning around again, he eyed a falling leaf headed towards the man. Using his finger, he guided the leaf to land on the chunin’s head. He waved his finger and the leaf was immediately transfigured into a small snake. Harry watched as the chunin continued to walk around, not noticing anything until a few of the civilians started screaming and pointing to his head. The chunin reached to touch his head only to start screaming (like a girl) before swatting it away. Intermingled in the crowd, Harry roared out laughing. In his own way, he was carrying on the Marauder spirit.

Turning away from the scene, Harry headed towards the Academy, having spent the half hour on his experiment. Stopping some distance away from the entrance, Harry waited patiently for class to end. As he waited, he turned to stare at the Hokage Monument. He smiled wistfully at their faces as he remembered them. They were all brave people, each with their own achievements. As much as Madara would deny it, the first Hokage was indeed a respectable and strong shinobi, despite their, ah, differences.

Harry scowled. Now is not the time to think about _him_. His old clan head can just go and–, oh the bell. Harry let the negative thoughts fade away as he waited for Sasuke to come out. After a few minutes, Sasuke indeed came out, though he was being followed by girls. Harry tried to stifle his laugh as he watched the poor nine year-old’s eyes dart around, coming up with some sort of a plan to escape.

Stopping, Sasuke stood his ground, and waited for the group of boys to get close. When they finally did, he sprinted around them and used them as a distraction for the girls while he escaped. Unable to hold it in longer, Harry burst out laughing. He waited a few minutes before going after him.

On the third alleyway he checked, he located the panting Sasuke. Seeing him like that made Harry start laughing again. Sasuke glared at him.

“I think that scene right there made my day,” Harry said, allowing the nine year-old to rest against him.

“Can we go now?” Sasuke grumbled, straightening up. Coughing slightly to hide a chuckle, Harry nodded. Sasuke led the way back to the apartment, taking the back roads to get there. Harry started humming. Sasuke gave him a weird look.

“What did you do?” he asked suspiciously. Harry smiled mysteriously.

“Nothing,” he sang. Sasuke sighed.

“Really?” Harry made a show of looking around to see if anyone was eavesdropping; seeing that they weren’t walking on the main streets, there was no one around. At this, Sasuke let out a begrudging smile.

“Just a small prank…” Harry said, still smiling mysteriously. Sasuke sighed.

“You’re acting like Uzumaki,” he muttered under his breath. “Make sure it doesn’t get traced back to you,” he told Harry, who shrugged indifferently. Magic didn’t exist here, and since no one knew about it, he was safe.

“I just made a chunin and a few civilians scream like a girl. It won’t get traced back to me!” Harry defended himself. Sasuke started laughing.

“What exactly did you do?”

“It was simple really,” Harry said, “But I’ll tell you about it while we eat, alright?” Sasuke pouted, but grabbed Harry’s hand and started dragging him back to their apartment, while Harry thought of a non-magic explanation.

••••••

“How old are you?” Harry turned his head to look at Sasuke. Deciding to stay outside for a bit, Harry placed a subtle notice-me-not charm on the two of them, and they both had wandered around for a bit before ending up sitting at a bench near a park. Since they did not encounter anyone, Harry was able to stay visible. Currently, they both were watching the sunset, or they were when Sasuke asked his question.

“How old do I look?” Harry questioned. Sasuke blinked.

“Um, well, I would have to say about 23… I guess…”

“Then I’m 23,” Harry stated. Sasuke gave him an annoyed look.

“I meant that… you’re a spirit, right?” Harry hummed in confirmation. “How long ago was it since you were sealed away?” Harry gave him a blank look. Sasuke flushed and looked away. “Just that one question…please?”

“Why do you want to know?” Harry asked. Sasuke fidgeted.

“You know everything about me, and yet I know close to nothing about you…” Harry smiled and reached over to mess up Sasuke’s hair. Sasuke protested loudly and glared at him.

“You know, you’re really quite cute,” Harry said, grinning. Sasuke turned red and glared at him even harder. Harry chuckled once, before becoming stoic again and looking up towards the sky. “If you don’t mind, I’ll tell you more about myself when you’re older and more mature.” Sasuke looked at him in surprise.

“Will you really?” he asked, disbelief coating his words. He has been trying for the past year to get Harry to say more about himself, but Harry wouldn’t breathe a word.

“I promise,” Harry said, holding out a pinky finger. Smiling, Sasuke wrapped his own pinky around his and they shook on it. “I never go back on my word.”

“Don’t worry, I believe you.” They sat in silence for a number a minutes before Harry decided to speak.

“I was around when this village was being founded.” Sasuke stared at him, stunned. He didn’t think Harry would start so soon. “What?” Harry said, raising an eyebrow. “You did ask, right?” Sasuke nodded, blinking away his shock.

“Wasn’t that around 80 years ago?” Harry nodded. Sasuke wanted to ask more questions, but he held his tongue. He knows that Harry will eventually give him more details later. Sasuke, instead, just nodded in acknowledgement. Harry stood up.

“I think it’s about time we head back.” Sasuke agreed and stood up as well. He walked ahead of Harry and left the bench area. Harry followed him as they passed the park entrance. Something caught his eye, and Harry stopped while Sasuke kept going. Realizing that Harry wasn’t following him anymore, he turned around to see Harry staring at something inside the park. Frowning, Sasuke backtracked to where Harry was.

“Did something happen?” When Harry didn’t answer, he looked inside the park himself. With the exception of a person on the swing, the park was empty. “What happened?” Sasuke asked again.

“Do you know him?” Harry asked. Sasuke’s eyebrows rose in confusion, but nonetheless, he looked at the boy again. A familiar mess of blond hair revealed his identity to him.

“Naruto Uzumaki… why?” Harry nodded absent mindedly before snapping out of his thoughts.

“Let’s go.” Startled, Sasuke followed Harry out of the area after giving Naruto one last glance.

••••••

Naruto blinked. It almost felt like someone was standing just outside the park, but when he looked, no one was there.

Sighing, he went back to the swing. He desperately wanted to be with someone that his mind was starting to imagine people. Wait till everyone hears about that. They’ll then have the confirmation that he is, in fact, insane. Naruto shuddered. Seeing that the sun had fully set, he slid off the swing and started his lonely trip back to his apartment. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 _‘There’s nothing interesting about him,’_ Sasuke thought to himself. His eyes narrowed when the blonde – that he totally was not stalking! – made another stupid joke, and was subsequently yelled at by the sensei. Sighing, Sasuke turned his attention to the window. It was a nice, normal day, with the sun shining, and only a couple of clouds floating in the sky— okay, he was almost bored to tears. Everything the sensei was talking about, he already learned from the scrolls that the clan had. Memorizing them was Harry’s idea of a sick joke. Sasuke made a mental note to never make a bet with Harry ever again. It wasn’t worth the torture.

The bell for lunch rang, and Sasuke, along with everyone else in the class, stood up, gathered his items, and headed out. Keeping an eye out for any insane fan girls, Sasuke set up his lunch in a hidden part of the roof, and started to eat. The peacefulness allowed him to let his thoughts wander, and wander it did. The current thing consuming his mind is why Harry is interested in Naruto.

Sasuke was not stupid. Admittedly, it took a few days, but he figured out why Harry kept questioning him on how his day at the academy went. The first time, Sasuke wasn’t bothered by it; Harry always asks him about his day. But eventually, Harry kept questioning him; about his classes, his senseis, and in particularly, his classmates. After going into detail all the inane things his fellow classmates have done (one that’s annoyingly always eating, one that’s annoyingly always napping, the annoying creepy stalker girls, the one with the annoying dog, etc...) Harry had more interest in what Naruto had been doing (which, if he recalled accurately, involved lots and lots of paint). Subsequent questioning proved that that was indeed what Harry’s interest was.

That pretty much leads to Sasuke’s current situation: finding as much information on Naruto Uzumaki as possible. So far, the only things Sasuke had found were that he was an orphan (like himself), and that he was, to be blunt, a loser; the blonde was dead last in all his classes. Why in the world would anyone have any interest in him? Groaning at his possible headache, Sasuke started shoveling the rest of his lunch down his mouth. He could use the rest of the time to stalk— observe Naruto.

Slipping out of his hiding spot, Sasuke quickly climbed down the building, and headed towards the classroom. After placing his stuff away, he again headed back to the roof, barely dodging a couple of fan girls who were walking around with the intent on finding him. Sasuke felt a shiver run down his spine. He knew about the team selection that will be taking place when they graduated. Because of that, he was currently praying with all his might that he wasn’t going to end up on the same team with any one of them. That would be a cruel and unusual punishment, and according to Harry, the Leaf Village isn’t supposed to practice that. In the mean time, however, Sasuke decided to take Harry’s advice and treat all his fan girls as enemy ninjas. As odd as it sounded, Sasuke was able to see where Harry was coming from. He already had been training for years to become a ninja. There was nothing wrong with adding training to avoid enemy ninjas to the list.

Glancing around, Sasuke swore quietly (Harry wasn’t around to hear him). He managed to come across all of his classmates having lunch, but had yet to even get a glimpse of Naruto. Collapsing on a nearby bench (after making sure no enemies were around), Sasuke let out an audible sigh.

“Something wrong?” Sasuke blinked and turned around. Standing there looking bored was the laziest person in his class, Shikamaru Nara. Next to him, and currently gorging himself on a bag of chips, was Choji Akimichi. Sasuke briefly debated on whether or not to say anything to them, but break was almost done. He couldn’t afford to waste anymore time.

“You haven’t seen Uzumaki around, have you?” Sasuke asked, trying his hardest to seem as though he couldn’t care less about their answers. Shikamaru’s eyes narrowed. Choji paused in his eating, and was giving him an odd look.

“What do you want with Naruto?” he asked suspiciously. Sasuke froze slightly, debating on how to respond.

“Are you looking to fight him?” Choji asked curiously. Mentally thanking him, Sasuke grasped his excuse.

“And if I am?” Shikamaru, oddly enough, relaxed marginally.

“He’s in detention,” Shikamaru answered after a pause. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

“I saw him leave the classroom,” he stated, crossing his arms. Choji laughed.

“You really think Naruto would willingly stay for detention?” Choji asked cheerfully, munching on his chips again.

“No…” Sasuke conceded. He should’ve known that the loser would do something like that; so much for gathering information during lunch. “Who is he serving detention with?” he asked them.

“Iruka-sensei,” Shikamaru replied. Sasuke nodded to them and walked away. Behind him, Choji and Shikamaru exchanged a glance.

“Wonder what that was all about?” Choji muttered. Shikamaru shrugged.

“It’s too troublesome for me to bother with it.”

••••••

This time, Sasuke was prepared. As inconspicuously as he could, he kept an eye on Naruto. For the rest of the day, Sasuke made sure he knew exactly where he was, so when it came time to leave, Sasuke was able to follow Naruto out. Since Harry promised to let him do what he wanted for the day, Sasuke had the whole day available to observe Naruto.

Naruto started wandering around the village. For a good number of hours, Sasuke was forced to silently follow the blonde as he aimlessly walked around, pranked a few people, gorged himself on some ramen, and just sat on the grass and stared at the sky.

Feeling exhausted, Sasuke finally decided to relax. Making sure he was still out of view, he leaned back against the tree, and relaxed his body. Glancing at Naruto, he once again questioned what was so interesting about him. Besides his rather impressive ability at eluding the older shinobis, there really was nothing interesting about him. Clenching his fist, Sasuke frowned. He refused to give up. He may not have known Harry for a long time, but he had been around the older man long enough that only interesting things catch his eye. For him to be curious about Naruto meant that there was something interesting about him. Therefore, until he figures out what that is, Sasuke mentally promised himself to not give up.

A sudden movement forced Sasuke to leave his thoughts and focus on Naruto again. Naruto stood up from where he was lounging for the past ten minutes. Sasuke looked at him curiously. Naruto turned to face the forest.

“What do you want with me?” he yelled out. Sasuke blinked and looked around. Who was he talking to? “Oi! You in the tree!” Sasuke jumped. How did he find out? He hesitated slightly to see if Naruto was referring to someone else. “Do you want me to come and drag you out?” Okay, so Naruto was referring to him. Taking a deep breath, Sasuke jumped out of the tree, and faced Naruto. Going by Naruto’s widening eyes, Sasuke guessed that he didn’t know who it was, and just knew that someone was there.

“What do you want?” Sasuke asked, trying to come across as though he wasn’t just stalking the blond. Naruto snapped out of it.

“What do you mean what do I want? You were the one following me, bastard!” Naruto shouted at him.

“Was not,” Sasuke defended, looking outraged.

“Was too,” Naruto shot back.

“Was not.”

“Was too.”

Sasuke quickly stopped his response from coming out of his mouth. He mentally shook his head. He wasn’t about to let Naruto drag him down to his own level. Sasuke was going to act like the shinobi that he was.

“I wasn’t following you. Stop making assumptions about things. Just because I happened to be in a few locations that you were in, doesn’t mean that I was following you,” Sasuke said as smoothly as he could, with his nose up in the air. Naruto was giving him an odd look.

“If that were the case, which I know it isn’t, then how come you were hidden the whole time?” Naruto asked skeptically, smirking lightly. Sasuke thought fast.

“I wasn’t. You being blind doesn’t prove that I’m following you.” Sasuke mentally congratulated himself when he saw Naruto getting angry.

“You’ve been following me since we left the Academy!”Naruto shouted, pointing at him accusingly.

“For the last time, I’m not following you!” Sasuke shouted back. “Going by that logic, I should be accusing you of following me.” Naruto smirked.

“Then why didn’t you in the beginning?” Sasuke opened his mouth, but paused. Naruto started laughing. “Ha! Got you! Got you! Talk your way out of that!” Sasuke glared at him.

“I don’t have to defend myself.” Sasuke glanced at the sky. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m leaving.” With his nose in the air, Sasuke started walking away. Behind him, Naruto stopped laughing, and was glaring at him.

“You’d better run!”

“I’m not running!”

Seeing that he was gone, Naruto turned away, and started walking towards the opposite direction. He started grinning. As annoyed as he was, he enjoyed arguing with him, and was looking forward to their next confrontation, which will hopefully end in a fight. The grin on Naruto’s face slipped. _‘That bastard,’_ he thought. _‘He never said why he was following me.’_ Fuming, Naruto headed back to his apartment. He was so going to punch that bastard tomorrow…

••••••

“So…” Sasuke gave Harry a blank look.

“What?” he asked. Harry raised an eyebrow.

“You were out pretty late…” Harry said, his lips twitching slightly. Sasuke kept his face blank.

“I was… checking something out,” Sasuke replied, avoiding eye contact.

“And…?” Sasuke frowned at him.

“And what?” Harry sighed.

“You’re bad at this you know,” he said. Sasuke looked at him startled. Did he know? Harry gave him a little smirk.

“At this point, you’re supposed to come up with a detailed excuse of what you were doing. You know, in order to avoid getting into trouble,” Harry said, placing an elbow on the table, and resting his chin on the palm of his hand. Sasuke mind was racing.

“Am I in trouble?” Sasuke asked, innocently. Harry gave him a look.

“At this rate, you’re going to be horrible prankster,” Harry said, pouting at him.

“And what gave you the idea that I’m going to be a prankster…?” Harry looked at him in shock. Whether or not he was faking it, Sasuke had no idea.

“I thought you were going to inherit my legacy,” Harry pouted. ‘Okay,’ Sasuke thought, ‘he’s definitely faking it.’

“Pranking is your legacy?” Sasuke asked, skeptically. He decided to play along, for now. Harry looked thoughtful.

“Well, not just mine’s, but my friends as well.” Sasuke looked at him in disbelief.

“You and your friends were pranksters when you were… younger?” Sasuke honestly had no idea how to refer to the time before Harry had become a spirit. He looked at Harry to see if he was bothered by the wording.

“Yep!” Harry said cheerfully, showing no signs of discomfort from Sasuke’s wording. “Is that so hard to believe?”

“Yes,” Sasuke said flatly. From what he saw of the members of the Uchiha Clan, almost none of them looked to be the type to laugh let alone play pranks. The thought of his relatives, cold as they have been, made his heart squeeze tightly. A pressure on his hand had him looking up. Harry, all traces of past humor gone, was squeezing his hand.

“Are you alright?” Sasuke nodded, embarrassed. Harry gave one last squeeze before withdrawing his hand. “Don’t forget, I’m here for you.” Harry smiled at him, and Sasuke couldn’t help but smile as well. “So, dinner?”

“Aren’t you going to finish your story?” Sasuke asked. Harry blinked.

“I don’t think you’d be in the mood to hear the story.” Sasuke understood what he was talking about. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t really be in the mood to hear stories, but this was different. He wanted the distraction from his thoughts, and he also wanted to hear more about Harry’s life.

“I want to know more about you, so can I hear the story?” Harry looked slightly taken aback, but nodded all the same. He got up and started to prepare dinner.

“Well, some time ago, when I was young, carefree, and innocent,” Sasuke raised an eyebrow. “I made friends with the last people I ever thought I’d get along with. With them and a few others, we…” Harry continued to talk while serving and eating dinner (with a few pauses to actually eat). As he continued his story, Sasuke eventually stopped eating and gaped at him. If what Harry was saying was true, then that would make him worse than Naruto Uzumaki.

“How in world were you not kicked out?” Sasuke asked in amazement, when Harry paused to take another bite of dinner. Harry motioned for him to eat as well.

“I had a very _unique_ professor,” he said, winking. Sasuke wondered how Harry’s sensei got anything done if he was that carefree.

“He sounds insane.”

“Not insane, but pretty crazy. That crackpot old fool,” Harry said fondly. Sasuke frowned.

“Well, if your sensei didn’t do anything about it, how about the…” Sasuke hesitated. Harry looked at him curiously. Their eyes met, and Sasuke knew Harry understood.

“Uh…” Sasuke watched as Harry thought quickly. Before Harry could say anything, he cut him off.

“Did th-they not know?” Harry nodded.

“They did not.”

“I’m the first person you told this to?” Harry nodded.

“You’re the first person here I told that to.” Sasuke didn’t know what to say, so he stayed silent and continued eating. After a moment, Harry copied him, and they finished dinner in silence. When he thought Harry wasn’t looking, Sasuke tried to see if there was any difference in the way Harry was acting. The more Harry had talked about his past, the livelier he looked. It hadn’t been until that moment that Sasuke realized that before, Harry seemed to look as though he was weighed down by something. _‘He must miss the past,’_ Sasuke thought. Harry had spent so much time in the scroll. Sasuke recalled that Harry said that he was around when the village was being founded. If Sasuke remembered his history correctly, that was over 70 years ago. All the people he must have known had to be dead by now. Harry must be feeling very lonely now. He blinked as his empty plate. Since when did he finish?

“Done?” Sasuke nodded, and stood up.

“I’m going to go finish my homework now,” Sasuke announced.

“Do you need help?” Harry asked, collecting his things. Sasuke slowly shook his head.

“I know everything on there… You made sure of that actually…” Harry grinned.

“I’m just offering. You look tired.” Sasuke shook his head, mentally making his plan for tomorrow.

“I’m fine…”

••••••

Sasuke, for the fifth time, felt his cheeks heat up. When the sensei collected the assignment, Sasuke couldn’t even look at the paper. He almost shoved the paper into the sensei’s hand, and determinedly looked out the window, to the sensei’s confusion. He still couldn’t believe that he actually fell asleep, and Harry had to finish his homework for him. Sasuke really wanted to slam his head into his desk, but that would be counter effective to help his headache, as well as it wasn’t worth the stares that he would no doubt be getting from his classmates.

Before his unfortunate passing out over his uncompleted homework, Sasuke had decided to get a gift for Harry. He remembered Harry mentioning something called ‘treacle’, and judging by his tone of voice when mentioning it, he must have really liked it (Sasuke assumed it was a sweet or something). As soon as the bell rang, Sasuke was the first to be out of the room. As quickly as he could, without looking suspicious, he headed towards the market place. He hoped that there was a sweet shop there that specialized in foreign foods and sweets. After reaching there, he began to look through the first shop he saw.

“I thought the word was that you hated sweets,” a voice said behind him. Startled, Sasuke turned around and glared at Naruto who stood there, looking at him curiously, his arms resting behind his head.

“Why are you here—” Sasuke paused. “Who says that I hate sweets?” he asked.

“Your fan girls,” Naruto replied bluntly. Sasuke blanched.

“Where did they get that idea from?” he questioned him. Sasuke was now very concerned that they were secretly following him everywhere.

“Does that mean that they’re wrong?” Naruto asked, hiding a snigger as Sasuke glanced around the whole area.

“No, I do hate sweets, but how do they know that?” Sasuke was now gripping Naruto’s shirt, and it took everything Naruto had not to burst out laughing at the paranoid expression on his face.

“Something about rejecting chocolates…” Sasuke made a face. Naruto, unable to hold it in any longer, started laughing. The villagers around them gave him disgusted looks, and hurried away from him. At that, Naruto immediately stopped laughing. Sasuke, not noticing the villagers, looked puzzled at the sudden change. “Uh, so anyway, if you hate sweets, why are you looking at them?” Naruto quickly asked, trying to cover up the awkward situation. Sasuke gave him a look.

“I’m buying it for someone who actually likes sweets.” Sasuke glanced through the glass at the sweets. “Do you know if anyone sells any treacle?” Naruto looked at him.

“Any what?” Sasuke sighed.

“I’m guessing that’s a no.” Sasuke headed towards the next store with Naruto trailing after him.

“Is it a foreign sweet?” Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded. Naruto hesitated slightly before grabbing his arm and dragging the protesting boy to the other side of the market. He pointed to one of the shops. “They sell a whole bunch of foods from the different hidden countries.” Sasuke gaped at him. “What?” Naruto asked him curiously.

“You were actually helpful.”

“Oi!” Sasuke ignored him and walked up to the lady who was watching them. After giving Naruto an odd glance, she turned towards Sasuke and smiled.

“May I help you?”

“Do you sell treacle tart?” The lady’s smile disappeared.

“Treacle tart?” she repeated uncertainly. Sasuke nodded. She shook her sadly. “I’m afraid we don’t—”

“Hey lady, do you have something syrupy and lemony?” Naruto interrupted. The woman’s smile stiffened.

“S-syrupy and lemony?” Naruto nodded his head enthusiastically. “A sweet, syrupy, lemony pastry,” he clarified. The woman glanced at Sasuke, who automatically nodded. “A-alright.” She headed towards the back of the shop. Sasuke turned towards Naruto.

“I thought you didn’t know what it was?” he hissed at him. Naruto grinned.

“The guy told me,” he said cheerfully. Sasuke looked surprised.

“What guy?” he asked, looking around. Naruto shrugged.

“Some guy who kinda sounded a bit creepy… anyway he was already gone when I turned around, but he said that it was a sweet, syrupy, lemony pastry.” Sasuke looked at him skeptically, and looked around. The area wasn’t that crowded.

“Will this be okay?” The woman returned. Sasuke glanced at the open box in her hand. He had no idea if it was good or not, but he nodded anyway. He’ll let Harry judge it for himself. After it was packed away and paid for, Sasuke and Naruto left the market area.

“Thanks for your help,” Sasuke said awkwardly, breaking the silence. Naruto grinned at him.

“No problem,” he said cheerfully. “Who is that for anyway?” he added as an afterthought. Sasuke hesitated. Naruto shot him an inquisitive look.

“It’s… for…” Naruto shook his head.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Naruto said. Sasuke shook his head.

“No, it’s okay. It’s for my…er… guardian spirit.” Naruto froze.

“Sp-spirit?” Sasuke nodded.

“You might not believe me but—”

“That’s an offering for a spirit?” Sasuke watched as Naruto started freaking out. “I-I should also give some sort of an offering, right?” Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but Naruto continued. “I-Is it going to haunt me if I don’t.” Again, Sasuke tried to cut in, but Naruto started running around in a circle. “Hang on, I’m going to go buy something as an offering—” At that point, Sasuke stuck out a leg and Naruto tripped, effectively shutting him up. “Oi! What the hell was that for?” Naruto yelled, wiping the dirt from his face.

“You were giving me a headache,” Sasuke deadpanned. Naruto grumbled as he got up.

“Anyway, I need to go and—”

“You don’t need to go and get him an offering,” Sasuke cut him off. Naruto frowned.

“Why not?” he asked. “I don’t want to be haunted by a spirit.” Sasuke shook his head.

“I told you, he’s a guardian spirit. Guardian spirits don’t haunt people, just looks out for them.” Sasuke had no idea if he was correct or not, but it was what Harry was doing, and if it was going to make Naruto shut up, then he did his job. Naruto’s eyes widened in realization.

“Oh, so he’s a good spirit?” Sasuke nodded. “He watches over and guards people?” Another nod. “He’s good at his job?” Nod. “And he doesn’t require a human sacrifice?”

“…”

“What?” Naruto defended, as Sasuke gave him a stop-being-an-idiot look. Sasuke sighed.

“If you want, when I make this offering, I’ll add your name to it as well.” Naruto grinned widely.

“Would you?” he asked eagerly. Sasuke gave a tired nod. “Woo!” Naruto cheered. Sasuke started walking away. “Hey!” Naruto called out, catching up to him.

“Stop lagging behind,” Sasuke said, shooting him an annoyed look. Naruto attempted to look apologetic, but the amusement was clearly seen in his eyes. Once again shaking his head (mentally), they continued silently. Throughout the rest of the trip, Naruto’s face held an odd expression. Holding his tongue, Sasuke made no comment.

“I go this way from here,” Naruto said, pointing towards a different direction. Sasuke nodded. Seeing that the odd expression was still on his face, Sasuke gave into curiosity and called back Naruto who was already turning away.

“What’s with the look on your face?” Naruto looked surprised.

“What look?” he said, confused.

“The look you had since a while ago.” Naruto blinked, before his eyes widened.

“It was nothing,” he said quickly. Sasuke eyes narrowed. Now he was really curious.

“Tell me,” he demanded. Naruto shook his head.

“It was nothing,” he repeated. Sasuke glared at him before coming to a decision.

“Fine then,” he said, turning away from Naruto. “If you don’t say anything, I’ll make sure not to include your name as part of the offering.” Naruto’s eyes widened comically.

“NO!!!!” Naruto gripped the sleeve of Sasuke’s shirt. “Anything but that!”

“Just tell me what it is then,” Sasuke said quickly, hoping to protect his ear drums. Naruto nodded quickly, and took a few steps back.

“Promise me you won’t forget,” he demanded. Sasuke nodded trying to discreetly check to see if his ears were okay. Naruto cleared his throat. His expression became solemn. “It really was nothing, but talking about your guardian spirit made me remember that you were also an orphan, like me.” Sasuke looked at him, surprised.

“What do you mean?” he asked. Naruto gave a forced laugh.

“The way you act gives the impression that you are not alone, when in fact, you are.” The smile left his face. “That just shows how much stronger you are. Unlike me, you’re not letting that hold you back…” Sasuke looked at him in shock. He had no idea what to say about that.

“Aren’t you the one who is always cheerful and playing pranks on everyone?” he finally said.

“I have to,” Naruto said, placing his hands behind his head again. “That’s the only way anyone will ever notice me.” Naruto started grinning again. “Anyway, see you around.” Naruto started walking away. It was after Naruto was out of sight that Sasuke remembered to leave as well.

••••••

“What exactly is this?” Harry asked, staring at the pastry. Sasuke sighed.

“I’m guessing not a treacle tart,” he answered. Harry looked at him, clearly amused.

“Is it by chance for me?” Sasuke flushed as Harry started smirking.

“M-maybe… you seemed like you missed eating the food you had in the past,” Sasuke muttered. Harry’s smirk softened in a smile.

“I do miss the food I had back then…” Harry went and grabbed a spoon.

“Isn’t this a foreign food though?” Harry paused for a moment before giving a short nod. “You hate the Leaf Village sweets then?” Sasuke asked. Harry thought for a moment.

“It’s not as though I hate it, it’s just that I prefer things like this more,” Harry said. Sasuke was still confused.

“Where exactly do they make treacle tarts?” Harry stared at him blankly.

“In another country,” he answered evenly. Sasuke glared at him.

“I know it’s another country. I meant which country as in a name of a country.”

“Mmm! This is almost as good as treacle tart,” Harry said, taking a bite. He took another bite, and a blissful expression appeared on his face. Sasuke glanced at the sweet. He went and grabbed a spoon for himself, and took a small bite of it.

 “Eww! How does anyone eat this?” Sasuke said, making a face. Harry laughed and took another bite.

“It’s pretty good for something that’s not treacle tart.” Sasuke slowly shook his head.

“You have a weird sense of taste.” Harry gave him a look.

“I’m not obsessed with tomatoes,” he told him. Sasuke stuck his tongue out.

“I’d better go and finish my work,” Sasuke said, picking up his bag. He turned and headed towards his room.

“Last chance,” Harry called out from behind. Sasuke shook his head.

“I’m not eating that.” Harry watched as Sasuke left the room. Taking another spoonful, he contemplated whether or not to question Sasuke, or to let him bring up the issue himself. He glanced at the clock. Almost 6pm. He’ll wait till bed time.

••••••

“So, do you want to talk about this now or later?” Sasuke jumped as Harry walked into his room. He watched as Harry made himself comfortable on his bed. “Well?” Harry said, raising an eyebrow.

“About what?” Sasuke asked quickly. He schooled his expression into a look of confusion. A quiet snort from Harry told him that it didn’t work. He glanced down at his finished homework. Readying himself for the inevitable, Sasuke sighed, and packed away his things. He looked up to see Harry enter the room with a tray of food. He gaped as Harry placed some snacks in front of him. He hadn’t seen Harry leave the room at all. At Harry’s insistence, Sasuke started eating.

“So, how about now?” Harry asked, after Sasuke took a few bites. Sasuke shook his head.

“It’s nothing,” he mumbled, taking another bite. Harry sighed.

“You know, we could do this the easy way, or the hard way…” Sasuke looked at him in alarm.

“The hard way?” he choked out. Harry grinned.

“It’s nothing much… just that I will bug you about it and annoy you until you tell me.” At this point, Harry was smirking. “Keep in mind I tend to get very creative…” Sasuke was unable to keep down a shiver.

“It really is nothing,” he mumbled. He took a final bite of his food before looking back at Harry. As much as he didn’t want to tell Harry, he still had a thing called self-preservation.

“So…?”

“Uh,” Sasuke quickly cleared his throat. “Earlier, when I was getting your treacle thing, I met up with Naruto Uzumaki.” Harry raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, go on.”

“He helped me find the store that sold that pastry.” Sasuke paused.

“You’re bothered that he helped you with something?” Harry asked incredulously. Sasuke shook his head.

“No, not that,” he said. “It was what he said afterwards.”

“And that was?” Harry prompted.

“He said that he admired me for being strong despite being alone.” Harry looked thoughtful.

“What did you say to him?” Harry asked.

“I said that he was the cheerful one that pranked people, and to that he said that he had to in order to be noticed,” Sasuke finished. “He left after that,” he added. Harry looked thoughtful.

“You didn’t tell him that you had me with you, right?” Sasuke nodded, focusing his attention on randomly scribbling on a piece of paper.

“I really don’t deserve a praise like that. He’s the one being strong.” Harry made a noncommittal sound.

“You don’t feel that if I wasn’t here, you would act like that?” Sasuke thought for a moment before shaking his head.

“To be honest, I don’t know how I would act, but I know I wouldn’t act like him.” Sasuke focused his attention onto Harry. “If you weren’t here, how do you think I would be right now?” Harry blinked, and looked thoughtful.

“Well…” he started. Sasuke looked at him expectantly. Harry sighed. “Truthfully…” Harry paused again. Sasuke frowned at him.

“Just tell me,” Sasuke told him. Harry sighed and rubbed his temples.

“Fine, but don’t be offended by what I say, okay?” Sasuke nodded hesitantly. “I sincerely believe that you’d be the angsty type,” Harry said bluntly. Sasuke blinked.

“Me? Angsty?" Sasuke was looking outraged, and Harry held up his hands.

“Hey, I said don’t be offended,” Harry said. He pressed his fingers against his lips to stifle the laugh that was threatening to escape. Sasuke was still frowning, so Harry got up and started patting his head. Sasuke looked at him confused at the gesture, and annoyed at having his hair messed up.

“What was that for?” Sasuke said, glaring at him. His hands reached up and tried to fix his hair. Harry laughed.

“You truly are the cute little brother I never had,” Harry told him, smiling. “In fact, you do remind me of someone who is precious to me.” Sasuke stiffened. “Sasuke, look at me,” Harry said before Sasuke could even start to think about his brother. Sasuke took a few short breaths and looked back at Harry. He seemed apologetic for bringing up that he indeed was a younger brother to a—. Sasuke shook his head to clear his thoughts. Harry patiently waited until Sasuke was fully focused on him.

“I would be that badly off,” Sasuke muttered. Harry grimaced slightly.

“You would, but keep in mind, you are not.” Harry lightly pinched Sasuke’s cheek. “You have me now, so forget about what could have happened, and now focus on what will happen from now on.” Sasuke gave a small smile.

“So you want me to think about the future?” Sasuke questioned. Harry nodded.

“That would be ideal,” Harry said with an odd smile. Sasuke, though, was frowning.

"What about the past?" Sasuke asked, looking at Harry closely. Harry kept his face blank as he considered Sasuke.

"There's no point in beating around the bush," Harry said after a moment. Sasuke determinedly stared back at Harry. "I know, right now you want nothing more than to make your brother pay for his actions." Sasuke winced at the relation reminder. "But I don't want you to throw away your life just for the sake of revenge."

"So you want me to forget about what he's done to me?" Sasuke said angrily, standing up so that they were eye to eye.

"No," Harry replied calmly. "I want you to never forget that tragedy, and I want you to eventually learn from it, but as of right now, I just want you to live." Sasuke made to protest, but Harry held up a hand to stop him. "By that, I mean live not to kill him, but live for yourself. Live the life you wanted to live before all this happened." Sasuke fell silent. “I know it will be hard, but can you promise me to live for yourself and not solely for Itachi’s death?” Sasuke hesitated and closed his eyes to consider Harry's words, and with a jolt of understanding and slight fear, he realized that he was right. Everything that he had done so far was so that he could get strong enough to kill Itachi. Any training, any knowledge, any new skill that he learned was all for that sake. If Harry didn't want him to live for the sake of killing Itachi, then what reason was Sasuke going to live for?

"What do you want me to─"

"That will be for you to decide," Harry gently interrupted. Sasuke blinked before ducking his head down. As much as he hated Itachi, he didn't want to disappoint Harry, the only person who truly cares about him now. Still staring into his lap, he nodded. He watched as Harry stood up and crouched next to him. A second later, his arms wrapped around him. Sasuke stiffened before relaxing his body. He buried his face into Harry's robe, and stayed that way for a few moments. "Time for bed, I think," Harry muttered. Sasuke slowly pulled away and glanced out the window and saw how late it got.

"I'll go change," he mumbled, making a grab for his pajamas. He paused when he remembered that Harry was still in the room. Humming, Harry stopped fiddling with a ring, and stood up to step outside. Sasuke quickly changed, and headed for bed just as Harry came in again. Sasuke didn't protest when Harry said that he was going to tuck him in for the night. As Harry turned to leave, he paused.

“Did you tell him who the pastry was for?” Harry questioned Sasuke. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

“What makes you think I told him it was for someone else?” Sasuke asked. Harry let out a snort of laughter.

“You hate sweets. Everyone knows that.” Sasuke groaned quietly.

“How annoying,” Sasuke muttered. “I told Naruto that it was an offering for a guardian spirit.” Harry looked dumbfounded before he burst out laughing. “What?” Sasuke defended himself. It took a few moments for Harry to stop laughing.

“N-Nothing. What was his reaction?” Sasuke gave him an odd look.

“He started freaking out, and was genuinely scared that he was going to be haunted if he didn’t make an offering as well.”

“And where exactly is my offering from him?” Harry asked. Sasuke stuck his tongue out at him.

“It’s grouped together with mine.” Harry pouted. "How about for your birthday?" Sasuke offered. Harry considered it before nodding.

"That will be fine." Sasuke smiled slightly, aware of what Harry was trying to do.

"When is your birthday?" Sasuke asked, trying to remember whether or not Harry ever mentioned his birthday.

"July 31st," Harry said off handedly. Sasuke stared at him.

"That's only eight days after mine," Sasuke said slowly. Harry shrugged. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think it was that important, to be honest..." Sasuke glared at him.

"Next time, were going to celebrate your birthday as well." Harry pinched his cheek and dodged a swipe.

"Good night!" he called out before closing the door behind him.

"Good night..."

••••••

Over the next few days, Sasuke kept thinking about what Harry had said. If his goal is not to be the defeat of Itachi, then what was? Since Harry somehow always knew what he was thinking about, Sasuke considered throughout his day at the academy, and the trip to and from there. As per his request, Harry, reluctantly, agreed to stop babying Sasuke and allowed him travel by himself, though he was still accompanied when doing anything else, not that Sasuke actually minded.

Debating with himself, Sasuke finally decided that he would visit the market place again. Besides looking for possible gifts to give Harry (it was given that he would no doubt owe Harry again in the future) he also wanted more hints as to Harry's homeland. For some reason he kept forgetting to ask him about it ever since he evaded the first question.

Reaching the marketplace, Sasuke paused. He glanced around at all the busy stores, but for some reason, he couldn't remember the location of the pastry shop. He wandered and examined all the stores. The pastry was no longer here.

"It only stays for a week." Sasuke turned around. In the woods, he saw the familiar spiky blond hair.

"Naruto!" Naruto, from behind a tree, waved. "What do you mean they stay for a week?" he asked the blond.

"They come here every year for a week. Since they travel around, they can't stay at a place for long," Naruto answered from behind the tree. Sasuke nodded to himself about the information. It looked like he would have to wait another year to buy Harry a gift from there.

"Thanks then," Sasuke said. He frowned when Naruto started walking through the trees, away from him. The trees obscured his sight of him, but the blond hair was bright enough to still be seen. Confused, Sasuke hesitated briefly before taking off after him. It was only when he looked around that he noticed something that made him pale. Small amounts of blood were scattered around the area. Sasuke's mind immediately began to race. Did he injure himself while training? Was he attacked? Either way, Sasuke was determined to try and help Naruto at the very least for helping him. Seeing blond hair getting closer, Sasuke, with a burst of energy, managed to finally catch up to Naruto.

"You're injured! Why the hell are you running—" Sasuke froze, taking in the scene before him. Naruto was breathless and in obvious pain. A small glance was enough to see the various cuts and bruises that were on his body. "What happened?" Naruto struggled to his feet.

"It's nothing," he mumbled. Sasuke stared at him in disbelief.

"Nothing?" Sasuke echoed. Naruto shrugged before wincing. Sasuke looked at his wounds again, and came to a decision. "Where do you live?" he asked. Naruto looked at him in surprise.

"Why do want to know—"

"You need to clean your wounds," Sasuke snapped at him. Naruto stared at him. Slowly, he raised his hand and pointed in the direction of his apartment. Sasuke nodded, and carefully took a hold of Naruto's arm and pulled him towards the direction that Naruto indicated. Minutes passed before Sasuke got a glimpse of the building. His nose wrinkled at the state of the place. Naruto pulled his arm out of his grip and lead the rest of the way. Climbing a few stairways, Naruto stopped in front of a door and opened it. They both entered the small apartment, and Sasuke, spotting the first aid kit on a shelf, grabbed it and brought it to Naruto.

"I can help myself now," Naruto said. Sasuke hesitated. He had a feeling that helping him would be something that Harry would do. That thought spurred him into action. He indicated to Naruto to hold out his arms and started to clean the wounds. To his surprise, a majority of the cuts were almost healed, and his bruises were starting to fade away. It looked as though he had the wounds for weeks rather than hours.

"They're almost gone," Sasuke said, looking at Naruto quizzically. Naruto shrugged.

"I heal fast." Sasuke concentrated on wrapping his arms before he was stopped. "Maybe I should do the rest by myself," Naruto said, giving a pointed look at Sasuke's 'work'. The ointment was messily applied and the bandages were already starting to come off. Sasuke frowned. He could have sworn that he had done it the way Harry had shown him; maybe he needed more training? He stepped away, and Naruto fixed the ointment, and bandaged both of his arms again. Naruto picked up the kit and headed towards another room, most likely the bathroom, Sasuke assumed, to check the wounds on the rest of his body.

Now alone, Sasuke took a better look at where Naruto lives. His already less than desirable mood plummeted even more when he took in the small space and the mess. As much as he wanted the place clean, Sasuke had no idea how to actually do so, since back at home, Harry insisted on doing the cleaning himself. He sighed at the fact that he now had to ask Harry to teach him how to do the simple things such as cooking and cleaning and treating wounds. Passing the kitchen, Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the numerous empty ramen containers that littered the kitchen area. Hearing the door open behind him, Sasuke turned to face Naruto.

"How did you get your wounds?" Sasuke said without warning. "If you don't answer truthfully," Sasuke added, guessing that Naruto might lie, "I will withdraw your name from the offering." It was amusing to see the look of horror on his face.

"You wouldn't?" he gasped.

"I would," Sasuke said solemnly. The look of horror on Naruto's face faded away, and was then replaced by anxiousness, surprising Sasuke.

"Well," he started, "you know that owner of the pastry store?" Sasuke nodded. "Well, that lady's husband got angry at me, and..." Sasuke stared at him, horrified. Some adult willingly beat a kid up?

"W-Why?" Naruto shrugged.

"It's not just him. A lot of the adults here don't like me." Sasuke blinked in confusion.

"Why?" he asked. Despite being dead last, Sasuke didn't see anything wrong with Naruto that deserved for him to be treated like that.

"I-I honestly don't know," Naruto confessed. Sasuke couldn't help but feel pity for him.

"Don't listen to those idiots," he blurted out without thinking. Naruto focused on him.

"Huh?"

"Those people are idiots and arseholes," Sasuke said, before blushing furiously, realizing that he accidently used the cuss word Harry sometimes used (though he didn't know that Sasuke could hear him). Naruto gasped and gave him an awed look.

"You just used the—"

"Don't tell anyone that I ever used that," Sasuke said quickly. He knew that Harry wouldn't hesitate to wash his mouth with soap if he ever caught him cussing. "Anyway," Sasuke started before they could get off topic, "you don't know why they would treat you like that?" Naruto shook his head.

"I don't really know. The only thing is that the adults always whisper to themselves whenever I'm around."

"In other words, you have no one?" Sasuke said softly, but Naruto still heard him. He shook his head furiously.

"That's not true. I still have Iruka-sensei and the old man." Sasuke looked at him, confused. He knew Iruka-sensei, but who was the old man?

"Who is the old man?" he asked.

"The Third," Naruto answered cheerfully. Sasuke's jaw dropped.

"You call the Hokage, 'the old man'?" he asked in disbelief. Naruto shrugged, unconcerned.

"He is old," he said simply.

"But he's the strongest shinobi in the village…" Naruto suddenly grinned.

"But not for long," he said, still grinning. He pointed at himself. "I wasn't going to say anything, but I'm going to tell you a secret. You are right now looking at the next Hokage." There was silence at the end of his statement.

"You, the Fifth Hokage?" When Naruto continued to grin, Sasuke started laughing.

"What, you think I can't do it?" Naruto asked, frowning. Sasuke took a few deep breathes to calm himself down.

"No." At Naruto's enraged face, he quickly added, "At least not how you are right now anyway."  Naruto blinked in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke took a moment to think of the most tactfully way to tell him.

"Well, to be the Hokage, you have to be the strongest shinobi in the village," Sasuke explained.

"And I'm not strong?" Naruto, annoyed.

"You're dead last in the class,” Sasuke said. “That pretty much means everyone thinks you're weak." Naruto's shoulders slumped.

"So the person who's at the top of our class is strong?"

"I hope so." Naruto straightened up, and focused his attention on Sasuke.

"Do you know who that is?" Sasuke flushed and determinedly looked anywhere but at Naruto. "Do you know?" he repeated.

"No, no idea at all," Sasuke denied. Naruto gave him a skeptical look.

"It's you isn't it." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah..." Sasuke eyed Naruto warily. Naruto was staring back with an odd look on his face. "So—"

"Can you tutor me?" Naruto blurted out. Sasuke looked at him shock.

"What?"

"Since you're at the top of the class, that means you're strong and smart and can help me." Naruto was now staring at him with puppy dog eyes. "Pleeeeease?" Sasuke sighed. He really didn't want to, but the longer he was in the apartment, and the longer he looked at Naruto, he could see the loneliness. He realized that if Harry had never showed up, then he would probably be in the same position, or even worse if what Harry said earlier was true. He looked at Naruto and saw the hopeful look in his face.

"Fine," he said, "but," he added when Naruto's face broke into a grin, "you have to do as I say." Naruto nodded eagerly.

"That's fine," he said, still grinning. Sasuke sighed when it looked like he wasn't going to be stopping anytime soon. He looked out the window, and to his surprise, it was already dark out. The sun had long since set, and the sky was not yet black.

"You don't by chance have an extra futon, do you?" he asked Naruto. Naruto stopped jumping around, and looked at him confused.

"I do, why?" Sasuke pointed outside.

"It's a bit too dark to walk home, so I was wondering if I could spend the night here?" He didn't think Harry would mind him staying over. Naruto was looking at him in disbelief.

"Really?" Sasuke nodded. Naruto's face broke into another grin. "Wait here." Naruto ran off to grab the extra futon. Sasuke, in the mean time, looked out the window again. Staring at the sky, he watched as the stars twinkled above him. Turning away, he missed the figure that was perched on top of the neighboring building.

••••••

The figure started absentmindedly humming as he watched Naruto Uzumaki carry back a rarely used futon. The two of them started discussing something, and then proceeded to start arguing about it. He was at first surprised that of all people Sasuke decided to be friends with, Naruto Uzumaki was the last person he would have thought of, or rather, Harry didn't think Sasuke would actually be willing to make a friend. He watched the two of them fondly. They were now looking over a sheet of paper. What was on there was anyone's guess. Harry briefly thought about going in closer, but decided that it wasn't worth the risk.

Watching how they reacted with each other brought a sense of nostalgia. It took a minute for Harry to realize that Naruto Uzumaki acted almost exactly like another red-headed Uzumaki. Almost immediately, he eyes sought out the Hokage Monument. He eyed the husband of the Uzumaki. Despite knowing that the reason of her suffering was not his fault, he couldn't help but blame him. He the felt the need to blame someone, and he couldn't very well blame his pseudo-little sister.

 _'This must have been what Snape felt like,'_ Harry thought, a bitter grin forming on his face. When the time came, he was unable to protect the person important to him. Harry looked back at the two. Seeing them made him smile as he remembered two people who acted almost exactly like they did. He really wanted to be with them again, but he couldn’t. He felt a sudden rush of anger towards the person who had gotten in his way; the person who made him what he was. In no time though, did that feeling fade. Being who and what he was, he was physically unable to hold any negative feelings about that person. He groaned as annoyance came and then left, taking some of his energy with him. Feeling utterly exhausted, Harry decided to call it a night. Sighing for the umpteenth time, Harry gave Naruto and Sasuke one last glance before vanishing.  


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Harry said soothingly.

“I’m not worried about me, I’m more worried about Naruto,” Sasuke said. Harry rolled his eyes, as he watched Sasuke go back to reading his notes.

“Well, I’m sure Naruto will be fine as well,” Harry stated, washing all the dishes. “You were tutoring him after all.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s going to be fine for the written part, but I overheard some of the senseis talk about how they might make the practical the clone jutsu. I have no idea why, but Naruto can’t do the clone jutsu,” Sasuke said heatedly.

 _‘Probably because of the Kyuubi,’_ Harry thought to himself. Naruto has so much chakra, that it’s impossible for him to use such a simple jutsu without overusing chakra. The shadow clone jutsu, on the other hand, would be perfect for him. Harry glanced at Sasuke who was now muttering to himself. The downside would be that no one Naruto knows can actually teach it to him, and those that do know it, wouldn’t want to teach it to him. Harry took a deep breath to calm down. There would be no gain in getting angry against the villagers right now.

••••••

“He failed,” Sasuke said blankly. Harry, who had been aimlessly staring out the window, sighed. He patted the seat next to him, and Sasuke sat down next to him.

“Was it the clone jutsu?” Harry asked. Sasuke nodded.

“He did well enough on the written, but yeah, he failed the practical,” Sasuke mumbled. Harry rubbed soothing circles on his back.

“Where is he now?” Harry asked. Sasuke shrugged.

“I was trying to comfort him, but he’s still depressed, and I don’t know where he went now.”

“Was that why you were late?” Sasuke nodded.

“He wouldn’t listen to me, and no one else is going to comfort him…” Sasuke broke off, glanced at Harry. Harry blinked in surprise.

“Do you want me to go and─” Harry stood up suddenly, and walked over to the window.

“What happened?” Sasuke asked, frowning. Harry peered through the window.

“There are a bunch of chunins, jonins, and ANBU’s moving around,” he muttered. Sasuke’s eyes widened.

“What’s happening?” Harry sighed, and closed the curtains.

“I have no idea.”

••••••

“I know what happened,” Sasuke deadpanned, the second he walked through the door. Harry looked up from the paper he was reading. Sasuke took a closer look and raised an eyebrow. “Why are you reading the village newsletter?” Harry shrugged.

“I was bored, and besides, this thing is absolute rubbish,” Harry said, crumbling it into a ball, and throwing it into the trash can. Harry refocused on Sasuke. “So what happened last night?” Harry asked. Sasuke hid his laughter at Harry’s curious expression.

“Naruto,” Sasuke said simply. Harry groaned, and slowly rubbed his temples.

“What happened?” Harry said, looking like he actually didn’t want to know.

“He somehow got convinced by one of our senseis to steal one of the Hokage’s scrolls.” Sasuke nodded at Harry’s incredulous expression.

“Is he alright?” Harry asked, concerned.

“He is,” Sasuke deadpanned. “Not only did he not get into trouble, but he’s a genin now who also happens to know the shadow clone jutsu.” Harry burst out laughing.

“Well, at least he knows how to clone himself now,” Harry said wiping his eyes.

“Considering he had to steal one of the Hokage’s valuable scrolls to do it, it’s a miracle he didn’t get in trouble, especially when a good 70% of the village hate—” Sasuke broke off, and shook his head slightly.

“Is he feeling better then?” Harry asked, getting away from that particular topic. Sasuke nodded.

“Besides me punching him, he’s ecstatic since he’s graduated, and being one step closer to becoming Hokage.” Harry raised an eyebrow.

“You _punched_ him?” Sasuke shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter now. He’s happy again, and you don’t need to… uh…”

“Reveal myself?” Harry finished. He let out a chuckle when Sasuke blushed and mumbled something.

“It’s better this way, right?” Sasuke said, looking at Harry. “I mean, how exactly would I even explain to Naruto that some guy has been taking care of me for the past few years, and can turn invisible whenever he wants to?” Harry laughed again, and mussed up Sasuke’s hair.

“You know, there’s nothing wrong with being possessive,” Harry said in amusement. Sasuke ducked away from Harry’s hand. “Also, don’t forget, I’m supposed to be the guardian of the Uchiha family. No matter what happens, the Uchihas are my priority.” Sasuke nodded. Harry pinched his still red cheeks, and laughed at Sasuke’s protest. “Just don’t forget that,” Harry reminded him. Sasuke nodded. Satisfied, Harry patted his head, and headed towards the kitchen. “Hungry?”

••••••

“How did the meeting go?” Harry asked. Seeing the look on Sasuke’s face, Harry paused. “That bad?”

“He was three hours late,” Sasuke grumbled, stabbing his food. Harry frowned.

“Is your jonin instructor—?”

“A guy named Kakashi,” Harry frowned slightly. “Not only was he three hours late, but he easily fell for the board eraser prank Naruto did,” Sasuke continued.

“Well, on the bright side, Naruto’s on your team,” Harry said helpfully. He winced as Sasuke stabbed his food again. “I think you should stop torturing the poor broccoli; it didn’t do anything to you.” Harry sighed when Sasuke switched to the carrots.

“Well yeah, but we also have Haruno on our team, and to be blunt, she’s a complete fan girl who looks pretty useless,” Sasuke muttered.

“Pretty useless?” Harry echoed.

“Well, she’s book smart,” Sasuke admitted, “but, all she’s done so far was stare at me and yell at Naruto.”

“Don’t underestimate book smarts,” Harry said, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. Sasuke blinked. “Just don’t underestimate them. Brawn can get you so far, and one day, when all hell breaks loose, they will be the only one who knows what to do.”

“Are you speaking from experience?” Sasuke asked slowly.

“Yup.”

“A former teammate?”

“Yup. Without her, we would have been screwed numerous times over.” Sasuke blinked at his choice of words. Nonetheless, he went back to his food with a thoughtful look on his face.

Deciding that he should prepare for tomorrow, Sasuke left to put his supplies together, leaving Harry to clean up. Almost mechanically, Harry started clearing everything away while he thought. It had been awhile since he heard about Kakashi Hatake. Harry had known him as being one of Obito’s teammates, but also the person who has Obito’s left eye. Since there wasn’t a body, that eye was the only thing left, and Harry had, for the longest time, wanted to give him a proper burial, even if it had to be a burial similar to the one Mad-Eye Moody had.

Another part of Harry (probably because he was the guardian of the Uchiha Clan) was also peeved at the fact that a non-Uchiha was using the sharingan. The sharingan was a rite of passage in the clan. Even though Harry felt that it was even more commendable for an Uchiha to not rely on the sharingan, it didn’t change the fact that activating it took a great deal of determination and the right environment, both of which are difficult to occur at the same time. Obito had to have gone through serious mental changes for him to have activated it, and even though Harry was almost dead sure that Obito gave Kakashi the eye (that was so like him), Harry felt that Kakashi should have relinquished the eye to the Uchihas. They would have given him the burial that he deserved. Harry knew he was being irrational about this, but damn it, he didn’t want anyone outside the Uchihas to have the sharingan.

“Are you alright?” Harry blinked and look towards Sasuke.

“I’m fine, why?”

“You’re wiping the table for the fifth time already,” Sasuke said, pointing to Harry’s hand. Harry looked down and saw that the table was indeed clean. Upon closer inspection, Harry realized that a little bit of the varnish was coming off onto the cloth. Giving Sasuke an apologetic look, Harry quickly rinsed out the cloth, and put it away.

“Sorry about that. Anyway, are you prepared for tomorrow?” Harry asked. Sasuke nodded.

“What were you thinking about?” Sasuke asked.

“Just remembering how small you used to be,” Harry said, grinning slightly. “Just yesterday, you were this adorable little kid, and now you’re already a genin who may or may not start missions soon.”

“May or may not?” Sasuke said, looking concerned. Harry waved it off.

“Never mind. I’m sure you won’t have to worry about it,” Harry said. Sasuke was still looking concerned. Harry nudged him towards his room. “You have to get up early tomorrow, so I’ll make you a good breakfast.”

“Wait, Kakashi-sensei said not to eat break─”

“To be blunt, I don’t really care what he has to say,” Harry said cheerfully. “You’re not leaving the place without eating anything.” Sasuke stared at Harry’s beaming face and felt slightly nervous.

“Okay,” Sasuke said warily. Harry’s smile softened.

“Should I pack something for Naruto as well?” Sasuke hastily nodded. Harry nudged Sasuke towards his room again. “Go to sleep now.” Grumbling, Sasuke left. Smiling fondly, Harry turned away to glance at the clock. Sure it was a bit early (or very early since it was barely eight in the evening), but after recalling the time where Mikoto has ushered a then newly genin Itachi to bed very early, Harry felt the need to repeat it.

Remembering Itachi, Harry sighed. He wondered what he was doing now, whether or not he was well, or if he was missing Sasuke. Harry snorted at that last thought. Of course he was missing his little brother. Itachi was doing everything for his sake after all. In fact, he reminded Harry of Sirius, who had gone through so much, and did so much for Harry. Glancing towards Sasuke’s room, Harry wondered how long it would be until Sasuke had his first long mission. Harry could take advantage of it and go check up on Itachi. Before that thought could go any further, Harry remembered that he needed permission from the current head of the clan before he could go anywhere. Settling on the couch, Harry allowed himself to drift off.

••••••

“Can you believe the nerve of him?!” Harry winced as Naruto started yelling. Sasuke winced as well.

“Stop yelling,” Sasuke said, moving away slightly. “I still need my ears.”

“He was barely paying attention to us. Hell, he was actually reading some dumb porno while fighting us,” Naruto continued, though Harry noted that it was a much softer pitch.

“That just shows how skilled he is,” Sasuke explained. “He was able to counteract our every attack while being distracted.” Harry smirked at the annoyance in his voice.

“And he tied me to the post,” Naruto said, pouting. Harry started to silently laugh. “I really want to get back at him,” Naruto grumbled. Harry made a mental note to assist Naruto with whatever plan he had for Hatake. “On the bright side, we passed!” Naruto said, yelling out the last part. “Starting tomorrow, we’re going to start missions.” Harry smiled at his mood change.

“What do you think we’re going to start with,” Sasuke asked eagerly.

“Maybe rescue a princess or we might have to spy on an enemy hideout,” Naruto said excitedly. It took great effort for Harry to not laugh out loud. Deciding that it might be for the best, Harry walked past Naruto and Sasuke, unseen, and left the kitchen. Once he was on the other side of the apartment, Harry felt it was safe enough to start laughing. They’re going to be in for a rude awakening tomorrow.

••••••

“Harry, how exactly is weeding and picking up litter a ninja mission?” Harry snorted.

“You guys just became genin,” Harry said, putting down his cup of tea. “You have to start with the basics first before you do any of the complicated stuff.” Sasuke huffed.

“You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?” Sasuke said accusingly. “No wonder you looked like you were about to laugh all morning.” Harry grinned at him.

“Did you catch the cat yet?” Harry asked, taking a sip of his tea. Sasuke stared at him blankly.

“What cat?” he said, alarmed. Harry smirked.

“You’ll see,” Harry sang, getting up to pour out more tea for himself, and grabbing a cup for Sasuke.

••••••

“We got the cat mission,” Sasuke deadpanned.

“I can see that,” Harry said, looking over the scratch marks on Sasuke. Harry went to retrieve a first aid kit, and sat Sasuke down so he could treat his cuts.

“I’m guessing Tora escapes a lot,” Sasuke asked, wincing as the cuts were being cleaned.

“Yup,” Harry said. “The cat escapes so much, that it’s become a tradition for genins to chase after it. Personally, I think that someone’s only considered a genin until after they had a Tora mission.”

“It escapes that much?” Sasuke asked.

“You have no idea,” Harry said with a laugh. “Not just her, but the predecessor cats as well.”

“There was more than one?” Sasuke said with horror. Harry just grinned. As soon as he was finished, Harry put the supplies away into the first aid kit, and Sasuke sighed with relief. “I’m glad we don’t have to deal with D missions for a few weeks.” Harry turned towards him and raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked. Sasuke started grinning.

“Remind me to treat Naruto to ramen next time.”

“What did he do?” Harry asked, now completely curious.

“I have no idea how, but Naruto has no issues with arguing with the Hokage, and somehow, he got the Hokage to give us a C class mission,” Sasuke said excitedly. Harry gaped at him.

“Really?” Sasuke nodded. “Well congratulations,” Harry said, beaming at him. Sasuke smiled back. “So what’s your first C mission?”

“We have to escort some drunk guy back to his village,” Sasuke explained. Harry blinked.

“How long will you guys be gone?” Harry asked. Sasuke shrugged.

“A few weeks at most,” he said.

“While you are gone, can I get permission to temporarily leave the area?” Sasuke looked startled.

“Why are you asking me? You can do whatever you want?” Harry smiled sadly and shook his head. He slowly turned Sasuke around to look at the scroll hanging over the entrance to the apartment. “You’re currently the head of the clan. I have to follow your orders, and I need _your_ permission if I want to leave the area.” Sasuke turned back towards him.

“Why is that?” he said, looking frustrated. Harry placed his hands on Sasuke’s arms to calm him down.

“That’s just how it is. At the moment, there’s nothing neither you nor I can do anything about it,” Harry said.

“Y-You can go,” Sasuke mumbled. Smiling to himself, Harry pulled Sasuke into a hug, and quickly pressed a small kiss to the top of his head. Sasuke turned red. Noticing this, Harry let go.

“Sorry,” Harry said sheepishly. “You just, for a moment, reminded me of my youngest kid.”

“You had kids?” Harry nodded.

“Three of them. You remind me of my youngest sometimes, and Naruto especially reminds me of my eldest. Both pranksters at heart,” Harry said, remembering them. Sasuke was looking at him in wonder.

“I don’t really mind if you do those things,” Sasuke muttered. Smiling warmly, Harry pulled him into a hug again. After a few moments of silence, Sasuke asked, “Do you miss them?”

“Greatly,” Harry said softly. After a few more moments, Harry pulled away. “Are you hungry?” Sasuke nodded. Harry headed towards the kitchen, still smiling slightly. Harry decided not to mention to Sasuke that his youngest also happened to be a girl. 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Humming to himself a little, Harry busied himself with making enough breakfast for both Sasuke and Naruto. Today was the day that their team was going to leave the village for their very first C mission. As soon as he was done with the food, he headed over to Sasuke's room and woke him up. After ensuring that Sasuke would stay awake, and giving him instructions about the food and the clean up later, Harry pulled him in for a quick hug, and whispered good luck to him before ‘vanishing’.

Sasuke, who was still flustered a little, went about his morning routine. As Harry had predicted, Naruto came in well before he was supposed to, before Sasuke was even finished with his shower. Harry amused himself with watching Naruto sniff the food he had made. Judging by his expression, Naruto enjoyed what he smelled. He didn't mean to brag, but Harry spent more than enough time cooking that he was fairly good at making great tasting food. It may have started with him being forced to cook by the Dursleys, but Harry learned to enjoy the process of cooking, especially for people he cared about. Day dreaming, he remembered the time when Mrs. Weasley was teaching him more recipes, and he managed to convince Ron and drag him and George away from the shop to be taste testers. The rest of the Weasleys later showed up, and resulting antics never failed to bring a smile on his face. It was one of the few times after the war where all the Weasleys were together and happy.

"Can you stop sniffing the dishes," Sasuke said, giving Naruto a stern look. Harry blinked away the last of the memory of the Weasleys laughing. With a small smile, he watched his current family member begin to serve food to an almost drooling Naruto.

"There's no way you made this food," Naruto said, his mouth bulging with food. "It's way too good." Harry silently laughed as Sasuke panicked. It was kind of cruel to laugh, but it was funny.  

"I didn't make it," Sasuke admitted.

"Did some old lady come by and make these for you?" Sasuke smirked.

"Yeah, something like that. A wrinkly short person with a weirdly pitched voice made all this," Sasuke said, grinning. Naruto's nose scrunched up a bit at the description, but still laughed. Harry silently snorted and grinned a little. He just described a house-elf. Harry stopped grinning. Did that make him Sasuke's house-elf? He does do the cooking and cleaning after all...

While Harry wallowed in his thoughts, Naruto and Sasuke continued to eat, while discussing/bickering about their mission. Harry drifted out of his thoughts when they stood up and put the dishes in the sink.

"Shouldn't you wash them? We're gonna be away for awhile." Sasuke sighed, and went back to the sink, and Harry started grinning again.

As soon as everything was put away, they grabbed their things, and left the apartment. Harry trailed after them until they reached the front gate of the village. A young girl with pink hair, who Harry assumed was their third member of the team, was sitting by the gate looking very bored.

"Why are you guys so late?"

"Why are you so early?" Sasuke asked back. The girl looked momentarily flustered before she started frowning.

"Kakashi-sensei told us to come at 6," she said, glaring at them a little. Harry started to laugh again. Kakashi had the reputation of being late, so he merely suggested to Sasuke that he might as well go later, and Sasuke agreed.

"We know he's always late," Sasuke said. "That's why I suggested that we come a few hours later." The girl blushed.

"Don't feel bad Sakura-chan," Naruto said cheerfully. "Just do that next time." The girl, Sakura, glared at him.

"I'm not feeling bad—"

"I hoped you guys weren't waiting long." Everyone froze, and turned around.

"You're late," Sakura told him heatedly. Harry gave him a quick look before backing away slowly. He still had no idea if jonin could sense him. His eyes widened when Kakashi looked towards his direction. He finally let go of his breath when Kakashi looked away a moment later. Sasuke briefly looked towards his general direction in worry. As Kakashi started giving them directions, Harry walked towards Sasuke and quickly placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered good luck into his ear. Seeing Sasuke's lip turn up a little, Harry left the group and went back to the apartment.

Once there, he walked through the place, making sure everything was off and put away. It wouldn't do for anyone to realize someone else was living there while it's supposed to be empty.

Once satisfied, Harry picked up a small pack that he had prepared the night before with a few necessities. With a last look around, he closed his eyes and concentrated. Theoretically, tracking down a specific Uchiha was complicated since he had to specifically remember and recognize the chakra signature of the Uchiha he was looking for in the crowd of a bunch of others with very similar signatures. Now though, since there were only two left, it made his task much easier. Predictably, the thought made him lower his head in remembrance of the others.

After a minute, Harry went back to his search. Concentrating once again, he searched. As always, he ended up finding the closest person first, Sasuke, who had barely left the village. Smiling a little, he skipped over him and kept looking. Now he just had to find the other one. Surprisingly, it only took a few moments. Itachi was in the Land of Fire. Admittedly, he was still quite far from the Leaf Village, but nevertheless, he was closer than Harry thought.

Narrowing down his exact location, Harry picked a spot a good distance away from him. He only wanted to secretly observe him, not tip him off that he was being followed.

He quickly built up some chakra and cautiously touched his limited reservoir of magic. Taking only a little, he closed his eyes, concentrated on the area, and with a crack, he was gone.

Momentarily disoriented upon landing, Harry hadn't realized he landed on a branch of a tree. Trying to get his bearings, Harry accidentally stepped off the branch. His years of training were the only thing that kept him from breaking his bones. However, they didn't prevent him from hitting a good number of branches on his way down. Moments later, he landed flat on his back on the ground with the air knocked out of him. Holding still for a minute, Harry slowly sat up, wincing as his back protested against him moving.

Now dizzy, Harry slowly reached up and began to pull various twigs and branches out of his hair, while shaking his head to get rid of the leaves. When he felt nothing else in his hair, he stood up and began to dust off his clothes of both dirt and leaves.

Looking around while continuing to wipe his clothes, Harry only saw stretches of forest. Besides the sound of crickets and other small animals, he couldn't hear anyone else. It seems like Itachi picked a secluded location to rest in. Deeming it useless to continue brushing off his clothes, Harry began to head over towards where Itachi was, except...

"It was somewhere over here." Harry froze. He didn't recognize the voice, but he most certainly recognized the one that followed.

"Very well then, take a look around." Itachi.

Harry began to sweat a little. These weren't just random chunin. They were S-ranked shinobi, and if Kakashi sensed something when he was right in front of him, then they would most certainly find him.

Reaching for his fallen pack, Harry quickly opened it and stuck his arm into it. After some searching and knocking down a few things, he was relieved to feel the silky texture of his Invisibility Cloak. Pulling it out, he quickly covered himself with the cloak, and jumped back into the trees. He made a mental reminder to organize his pack. As much of a good idea it was to have his pack mimic Hermione's beaded bag, it was a hassle to find anything. He couldn't remember the amount of times he lost his cloak in there. He couldn't even use magic to find it since it was charmed against summoning (never mind that he couldn't waste magic at the moment).

Rustling of leaves had him snapping to attention, and his eyes were drawn towards the ground. Moments later, two people walked out. The person who was in the front made him raise his eyebrows. With blue skin and markings on his face, Harry mentally compared him to a fish. However, when he opened his mouth, Harry quickly amended it to a shark. Eying the man's sharp teeth, Harry took in the large sword on his back, and realized who this was, a member of the Mist Village's seven swordsmen, though it has been disbanded for awhile now.

Looking at the person behind him, Harry sighed softly. Itachi was looking even more stressed out, which was natural. He was in a nest filled with S-ranked criminals whom he was supposed to be spying on; the Snape of this world so to speak. Harry remembered when he had still been in the village. Though quiet and alone most of the time, Itachi had been very much studious and hardworking. Watching him had been like watching Al; quiet and focused on his tasks, but very much devoted to his siblings.

Pulling his Invisibility Cloak closer to himself, he watched as the two of them searched around the area. He silently swore to himself when they found the pile of leaves, branches, and twigs that his fall had caused. He should have cleaned it up.

“It looks like someone fell down here,” the blue skinned man said. Itachi examined the damaged trees. “Do you think we’re being followed by someone?”

“I don’t believe so,” Itachi said after a moment. Harry raised an eyebrow. Why was he so confident about that? Harry did just fall there minutes ago.

“What makes you say that?” the other man asked.

“If it had been someone, they would have cleared the area up to avoid suspicion, not leave it as it is,” Itachi explained.

“So it’s not just some idiotic shinobi?”

“Even the most incompetent one would have cleaned it up.” Up in the trees, Harry gaped at him. Did that mean he was worse than an incompetent shinobi? “Either way, we should get moving.” Worrying about his ninja capabilities, Harry almost missed the other two leave. Snapping out of it, he quietly moved through the trees, taking care that he landed correctly and without sound. He only intended to follow Itachi for a little bit to see if he was alright (or as alright as he was going to be).

Harry noted that they took paths that were rather secluded. It made sense seeing that they were criminals, but it became harder for Harry since he couldn't use other people as a distraction in case he screwed up again, since he's apparently worse than an incompetent shinobi.

When they stopped by a small tea shop, Harry took the time to look around the area to find out exactly where they were. Coming across a few signs, Harry noted that they were in the northern part of the Land of Fire; far enough away from the Leaf Village, but still closer than Harry was comfortable with. Itachi could still be easily recognized by a shinobi if he was spotted. Since when was Itachi this reckless?

Seeing something, Harry stopped moving. Crouching low in the trees, he groaned; of course there was a leaf shinobi here. Quietly, Harry rushed back towards the tea shop where Itachi was. Hearing rustling sounds, Harry glanced down to see the leaf shinobi heading in the same direction as him. Feeling the beginnings of panic, Harry moved faster, and at the edge of the forest in front of the tea shop, Harry blinked. They were gone. Below him, the shinobi stopped by the shop. Narrowing his eyes, Harry jumped down, and slowly approached the shop.

"Ah yes, there were two people here earlier," the shopkeeper said. "Is something wrong?" she asked the shinobi in concern. The shinobi shook his head.

"No, there's nothing wrong. Just please be cautious for your own safety," he said. Harry sighed. As much as a good guy this person seemed, Harry didn't want a confrontation between him and Itachi. As much as Harry knew that Itachi wouldn't intentionally do anything against a leaf shinobi, he has no idea what the blue skinned man was capable of, though he being part of the Akatsuki was a measure of his skill. That meant that Harry had to somehow distract him enough to get off the trail of Itachi. Sighing, Harry tried to think of what to do.

"Ow!" Harry blinked as he was suddenly pushed forward. Clutching his Invisibility Cloak around himself, he turned around. On the ground was the leaf shinobi, who was staring at his general location in shock. Harry took a cautious step to the left towards the forest, and when the man's eyes didn't move, he gave a sigh of relief. The shinobi merely walked into Harry, not spotted him. Getting an idea, Harry smirked a little.

Backing away towards the forest, Harry watched as the leaf shinobi slowly got up and stared in the space in front of him.

"What the..." he muttered, as he slowly walked forwards, his hands out in front of him. After taking a few steps, he slowly put his hands down and looked confused. Shaking his head a little, the man started heading down the road. Harry got back into the trees, and starting running to get ahead of the shinobi. From what he could sense, Itachi was further along the road, so if he had to stop the leaf shinobi, it had to be now.

Annoyed that he had to again tap into his precious reservoir of magic, he sent a small hex towards the leaf shinobi, tripping him. He watched in amusement as the shinobi stumbled back to his feet, and began to look around the area. Finding nothing, the leaf shinobi looked concerned and continued on, but was obviously looking around at his surroundings more. Snickering slightly, Harry aimed at the shinobi again and shot off another hex. This time, not only did the leaf shinobi trip, but Harry caused him to be dragged by his feet a good distance in the opposite direction.

When he let go, Harry was satisfied when the leaf shinobi began to scream about ghosts, and ran back the direction he had come from. Congratulating himself, Harry jumped down, startling a large wild deer when he landed next to it. Absentmindedly patting it, he waited until he couldn't sense the leaf shinobi anymore to leave the forest. Adjusting the cloak once again, Harry stepped out from the forest onto the road, and looked towards the direction where the shinobi had run. Maybe he should go back now.

For the second time that day, Harry was almost pushed to the ground. Glaring at the large deer that had followed him out, Harry double-checked that the cloak was covering him again, which was good, since behind them, Itachi and the blue skinned man came up the road. The blue skinned man had his sword out, but they both froze at the scene.

"It's just some deer making that noise," the blue skinned man grumbled, putting his sword away.

"A stag," Itachi corrected, staring at it. Harry glanced at the deer, or stag rather, and felt a bit fond of it.

"Tch, whatever. We wasted enough time here as it is," the blue skinned man said, turning around and walking away. Itachi stared at the area in front him, but soon turned around as well, and walked away. Harry let go of the breath he was holding. Giving the stag another pat, Harry walked away from it, and when he was a good distance away, he concentrated on the apartment, and disappeared with a crack.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Biting his lips, Harry stood right in front of the gates leading in and out of the village, and watched as various other people (mostly shinobi) passed the gate to either enter or leave, but Harry couldn't care less. The four he was waiting for had yet to enter through the gates. He had reached out with his senses, but they weren't in the Land of Fire, so Harry had to assume that they were still either in or near the Land of Waves.

Walking right up towards the gate, Harry reached out with his hand to pass through the gate only to hit something solid. Curling his hand into a fist, he banged on the space in front of him, but as before, the invisible barrier in front of him did not give way. Swearing, he kicked the barrier and walked away, ignoring the startled looks from the nearby people who heard the disembodied swearing.

Now nursing his pained toes, Harry slowly limped in the direction of the Hokage's office. He couldn't be the only one concerned that Team Seven was late, and if there were any reasons why, the Hokage would be the first to know, right?

Halfway there, however, Harry spotted a group of jonin. Remembering that Kakashi had sensed him a little, Harry kept his distance and waited for the group to leave. Unfortunately, after a half an hour of waiting, the group had yet to move, and in fact, more jonin went in and out of the building during his wait. Harry debated getting his Invisibility Cloak, but decided against it. People kept moving in and out of the building, _and_ that group had yet to leave, so while he wouldn't be spotted, he would still get walked into by someone, and ANBU wouldn't take kindly to someone walking around unseen. Gritting his teeth, Harry turned around, and made his way back to the apartment.

Closing the door behind him, Harry pulled out one of the chairs at the table, and slumped into the seat. There was a fine layer of dust in some parts of the apartment, but Harry was too frustrated to care. What the hell was taking the group so long? If anything happened to Sasuke─ no, not just Sasuke, but Naruto and Sakura too, Harry was going to kill Kakashi. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Harry closed his eyes and slowly took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He kept this up for a few minutes until he felt a bit calmer. He could really use someone to talk to right about now. Placing his left hand on the table, he stared at the dark stone ring on his finger. Shaking his head a little, he sighed and removed his hand off the table. He didn't have enough magic for that; even less so after jinxing the shinobi that had been trailing after Itachi.

He couldn't deny, though, that he was starting to get lonely. He had been so used to talking with Sasuke for the past few years, that though it had been merely three weeks, Harry missed talking to Sasuke, the only person in the village that knew of his existence. Blinking at his train of thought, Harry slammed his head onto the table. He was starting to get overdramatic. It's true that ever since his spirit (soul? He didn't even really know) was sealed away into scroll, he had been lonely.

He desperately missed his family. Harry couldn't count the number of times a day he thought of them: Ginny, his compassionate and understanding wife; James, Al, and Lily, his kids that were his pride and joy, especially when they work together and become the three monsters (according to McGonagall) who are the pranking masterminds at Hogwarts (even better than the Marauders apparently) with Lily being the creative mind, Al being the planner, and James being the instigator; then there's Ron, his ever hungry and carefree brother; Hermione, the ever worrying sister that was almost like a second mother to him (or third... He didn't want to insult Mrs. Weasley now, did he?), and many, many others.

Massaging his head, Harry laughed at himself bitterly. He hadn't been like this before. It looks like he got too used to the past few years of being around and talking to someone.

 _'What are you doing, Harry?'_ he thought to himself. Something bad could've happened to Sasuke, and here he was wallowing in his self-pity at being ‘lonely.’ Standing up, he grabbed the large scroll from above the doorway, and unrolled it on the table. He knew it was pointless, but Harry, once again, examined the seals on the scroll, hoping this time to find any sort of weak spot that could let him go. After a near hour of examining the entire scroll, Harry rolled the scroll up, and kicked it across the room in anger. Regretting that he used the same injured foot, Harry sat back into the chair, and put his head down on the table. He was feeling very tired.

••••••

"Harry? Harry." Harry grimaced, and shoved the hand that was shaking his shoulder. He was having a good dream, dammit. He was celebrating with the Weasleys, and even Sirius was there along with─ "Harry!" Harry, almost jumping out of his seat, looked up and owlishly stared at the person in front of him.

"Sasuke?" Sasuke looked at him in concern. "When did you get back?" Harry asked slowly.

"Just now," Sasuke said slowly. He yelped when Harry grabbed him, and pulled him into a hug. Protesting a little, Sasuke gave up when Harry showed no signs of letting go. Slowly patting his back, Sasuke absentmindedly looked around, and raised his eyebrow at the dust in the place. He knew Harry wasn't a neat freak, but he got bored easily, which was why Harry usually cleaned everything (since he couldn't do anything else.) Sasuke felt a slight surge of guilt, before deciding that he should at least extract himself from Harry first before he did anything else.

Harry finally let go. Holding Sasuke at arms length, he looked him over from head to toe. Sasuke was immensely thankful that they waited until he was fully healed before they left. He didn't want to know how Harry would react if he found out about his senbon injuries.

"Why were you guys so late?" Harry asked when he was done. Sasuke's mind raced. How was he supposed to explain this to Harry in a way that he didn't get angry?

"Well," Sasuke started, "our C-ranked mission kinda became an... A-ranked one..." Sasuke mentally cringed when he said the final word. He should have phrased that better, and sure enough, Harry's eyes hardened.

"And how exactly did that happen?" Harry asked sharply. Sasuke knew that Harry's anger wasn't directed at him, but he couldn't help but cringe a little. As if noticing his reaction, Harry's eyes softened, and he pulled out a chair for Sasuke to sit in. "How did that kind of mistake happen?" Harry repeated in a gentler tone.

"The man we had to escort, Tazuna, lied about some details, so..." Sasuke continued to tell Harry what had happened. Part of the way through his story, Harry went to make some tea, and holding the warm cup in his hands, he continued to talk. Sasuke almost laughed when he was able to correctly guess Harry's different reactions throughout his story: Harry had looked horrified when he mentioned Zabuza, he felt slightly pleased when Harry looked impressed at his and Naruto's plan to free Kakashi, Harry had became worried when he mention Gatou, became impressed again when he mentioned that he and Naruto were both able to climb trees using their chakra (He left out that Sakura had gotten it immediately so that Harry didn't rub it in his face that he was right about her, but a small smirk from Harry told him that Harry knew), and so on.

When it came to the final fight, Sasuke hesitated. Besides just unwilling to tell the soon-to-be irate/worried Harry what happened, Sasuke himself didn't really have an idea about what happened (never mind that he was unconscious towards the end). Kakashi didn't tell him anything, and all he got from Sakura was that Naruto did something. Of course, when he went to Naruto, Naruto stayed tight lipped, and just offered a relieved smile that Sasuke wasn't dead.

"Just tell me," Harry said groaning. "Might as well get it over with..." Sasuke took a slow sip of his tea in order to stall. When Harry cleared his throat, Sasuke placed the empty cup down, and raced through the events of the battle. Breathless by the end of it, Sasuke watched as Harry stood up.

"Harry?"

"I will kill that man." Sasuke jumped out of his seat and raced to the door just as Harry reached it.

"There's no need to go and kill Kakashi-sensei," Sasuke said hastily. Harry's eyes narrowed.

"He allowed the mission to continue when you guys should've aborted and come straight back," Harry hissed.

"It was our idea to continue the mission," Sasuke said, not budging from the doorway.

"He's a higher rank than you, so it was up to him to decide whether or not to abort the mission. He should've had the brains to know that this was a dangerous mission that almost got all of you killed. If it wasn't for the sheer dumb luck you guys had, you all would have been killed!" Harry took a deep breath. "You should be aware of the fact that in any other circumstance, you would've been killed. That man should've known that you three couldn't handle a high ranked mission like that." Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed.

"We couldn't handle a high ranked mission like that?" Sasuke repeated. Harry took a deep breath, and seemed to calm down a little, but Sasuke was just getting started. "I think we handled that mission just fine," Sasuke said heatedly. "Sure there were some close calls, and yes, I wish I did a few things differently, but at least Kakashi-sensei had enough faith in us to know that we were actually capable enough to do this mission," Sasuke said, almost shouting. Harry raised an eyebrow, and his eyes darkened, but he didn't say anything. "Unlike you who keeps treating me like a baby, Kakashi-sensei actually acknowledges that I _am_ a capable shinobi; I'm not an eight year old kid anymore." Now Sasuke was the one who was breathing heavily. His hands were shaking, and he realized that he needed some time alone, and had to get out now. Turning around, he threw open the door.

"Sasuke, I─" Sasuke shrugged off Harry's hand. When Harry made to follow him, Sasuke got angry.

"Don't move. Just stay here and don't follow me!" he ordered. He slammed the door behind him shut, and almost ran away from the area. To his relief, Harry didn't follow him. Rubbing his eyes furiously, Sasuke picked a random empty path and started walking. Why couldn't Harry understand that he wasn't that scared eight year-old anymore? Sasuke greatly respected and admired Harry, but for him to say that Sasuke wasn't strong enough to do such a mission aggravated Sasuke. Even Kakashi-sensei (who at times was even worse than Harry at treating them like kids) knew when to have faith in their skills. Sasuke dimly noted that he lost his chance to question Harry about Kakashi-sensei having the sharingan eye.

By the end of the day, Sasuke was still fuming slightly, and had no desire to return to the apartment. Noting where he actually was, Sasuke began to run and head towards the rather rundown apartment building. He would just spend the night at Naruto's, no big deal.

••••••

The next morning, Sasuke was fully calm and had started to feel a bit guilty for yelling at Harry. Surprisingly, Naruto had yet to ask him why he wanted to spend the night, and after a few hours of thinking of some kind of answer to the unasked question, Sasuke decided that Naruto wasn't going to ask, and that he should give Naruto more credit. After a quick breakfast of ramen (he really needed to convince Naruto to eat something else), they made their way towards the meeting spot that Kakashi told them to go (a few hours later than the actual time naturally). Seeing no one else, they waited. After a few minutes of silence, Naruto decided to start talking about a prank he had in mind. Sasuke slowly shook his head. Naruto needed to be more creative.

"Oh, Kakashi-sensei isn't here yet?" Sakura said, running up to them, slightly out of breath.

"So you took our advice," Naruto said cheerfully. Sakura blushed.

"Well, there's no point in just sitting here by myself," Sakura mumbled. "But I would've been here earlier if my parents didn't stop me," Sakura added, before looking at them horrified, and slapping her hands over her mouth. "Uh, sorry I said that... J-Just ignore me." She turned her back towards them, and determinedly looked at everything but them. Sasuke raised his eyebrows, and Naruto just shrugged.

"Why did your parents try to stop you?" Naruto asked. Sakura looked a little surprised at the question, and looked between the two of them for a moment.

"I didn't go into details obviously, but I told them a little about our mission, and..." Sakura laughed nervously.

"They didn't like what they heard," Naruto finished. Sakura nodded.

"They do know that you're a shinobi now, right?" Sasuke said. "You're going to have a lot more missions that are going to be even more dangerous." Sakura sighed.

"I know, but it doesn't change the fact that they're still going to worry over me, and continue to treat me like I'm five." Sakura was smiling a little now. "But they are parents after all. It's kind of their job to be fussy and worry constantly for me. I can't really blame them for that, can I?" Naruto was smiling wistfully, and Sasuke was feeling guilty again. Harry was only worrying for him, especially since, yes, they did almost all die. There was no reason for him to snap like that.

"Yo." The three of them wordlessly turned their heads towards Kakashi's direction. Sasuke made a mental note to go straight to the apartment as soon as they were done. "I'm guessing you guys weren't waiting long." When he got no reply, Kakashi sighed. "Well, we're back to D-rank missions─" At the collective groans, Kakashi laughed. "You guys really shouldn't be surprised considering what happened to our last 'C-rank mission'"

"We know," Naruto said dully.

"But just because we understand," Sakura said.

"Doesn't mean we have to like it," Sasuke finished darkly.

"That's the spirit," Kakashi said with a closed eyed smile. "Let's see how many we can get done before the sun sets." Team Seven groaned in unison.

••••••

They managed to finish only two missions by the time the sun set. Admittedly, they were long and tedious, but either way, Sasuke was impatient. He was anxious about returning, but he knew he had to, so when they were done, he walked back towards the apartment. When he got near the door, he hesitated. Taking a deep breath, he reached for the doorknob. Momentarily surprised that it was unlocked, Sasuke pushed the door open, and recoiled back and almost shouted. He hadn't expected Harry to be right behind the door.

"Don't scare me like that," Sasuke muttered, calming his racing heart. Harry gave him a shaky smile.

"My apologizes," Harry said softly. Sasuke frowned.

"About yesterday, I'm─"

"Before we do that," Harry interrupted weakly, "Could you..." he gestured to himself. Sasuke frowned in confusion. Harry was trembling, but why? Harry sighed softly. "Could you release me first?" Sasuke blinked.

"Release you? Release you from what..." Sasuke recalled to their last conversation, and immediately paled. "Uh, you can move now!" Almost instantly, Harry collapsed onto the floor. Closing the door behind him, Sasuke rushed to his side.

"I'm fine," Harry said when Sasuke made to lift him up. Taking a step back, Sasuke watched as Harry took deep breaths. He was still shaking a little, and now, not only was Sasuke feeling guilty over their argument, but he was now ashamed of himself for leaving Harry like this for the past 24 hours.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke whispered. Harry looked momentarily confused before he gave Sasuke a weak smile.

"Don't apologize," Harry said softly. "It's not like you did this on purpose."

"I didn't know I could do that," Sasuke said in a quiet voice. Harry laughed a little. Harry motioned to Sasuke to come to him.

"I think I want to lie down a little," Harry said dryly. Sasuke helped Harry up, and supported him to Sasuke's room (which was the closest), and as soon as Harry settled onto the bed, he gave a small sigh of relief. Sasuke dragged in a chair from the other room, and Harry snorted. "I'm just tried, not at my sick bed. There's no need for you to sit vigil at my bedside." Sasuke flushed a little, but still sat down in the seat, and gave Harry a stubborn stare.

After a few minutes, it was pretty obvious that Harry wasn't going to say anything, so Sasuke took a deep breath.

"About yest─"

"There's no need to talk about it," Harry said, cutting him off. "I over stepped my boundaries, and I realized that I coddled you too much." Harry smiled at him. "You're a shinobi right now, and I should expect you to get into dangerous situations, and I should have at least a meager amount of faith in Kakashi." Sasuke could hear the distaste in Harry's voice. "As your sensei, he should know your capabilities better than I would as well as help you hone them better than I could ever do." Harry snorted lightly, before he shook his head a little. "My children were basically civilians." Sasuke's eyes widened.

"Really?" Harry nodded.

"Because of that, as well as the war that had been going on then, I was over protective of them, and I transferred that to you since they weren’t here, but you were here." Sasuke flushed again. "In the future, I'll try to be more considerate of your feelings." Sasuke nodded and smiled a little.

"And you yourself...?"

"I was a civilian also," Harry said. Sasuke gaped at him. This whole time, he had imagined that Harry had been some powerful shinobi before becoming a spirit... "Nope," Harry said, grinning slightly. "Full civilian here."

"But you have the sharingan..." Sasuke said slowly. Harry's eyes hardened slightly.

"Despite being a civilian, I still had undergone a life or death situation," Harry muttered, "like you─" Harry stopped speaking, and stared at Sasuke.

"How did you know I unlocked my sharingan?" Sasuke said, gaping at him. "I didn't say anything about it while telling you about the Land of Wave mission." Harry frowned slightly before his expression cleared.

"You told me you almost died on that mission," Harry said, "how exactly would you not activate it in that circumstance?"

"That makes sense," Sasuke muttered. He brightened up slightly. "This means that you can help me learn how to use them?"

"I guess it would be possible to talk you through it, since I can't obviously give you examples," Harry said. Sasuke nodded. Harry being a civilian would explain why he had never seen Harry use a jutsu, or why Harry could only help him in his studies verbally. Sasuke had hoped that Harry could help him with his sharingan, but it looks like, once again, it will be verbally. Still, it was better than no help at all.

"Thank you," Sasuke said. Harry grinned, and ruffled his hair. "I'm going to go take a shower, okay?" Harry hummed. Grabbing his stuff, he quickly headed towards the bathroom. By the time he got back to his room, Harry had already fallen asleep in his bed. Staring at him for a moment, Sasuke went over and covered him in a blanket. Where was he supposed to sleep now? He didn't know where Harry kept the futon that he usually uses.

"Just get in here," Harry mumbled in his sleep. Sasuke saw that Harry left him the other side of the bed.

"I'm not some kid that needs to sleep with their parent." When Harry stayed silent, Sasuke went closer, and saw that he was asleep again. Sasuke sighed. It looks like he had no choice. He should probably put more effort into knowing where everything in the apartment was.

••••••

The next couple of days were spent doing various meaningless D-rank missions. Sasuke (as well as Sakura and Naruto if he wasn't mistaken) was hoping for another mission outside the village, though Sasuke was careful not to let Harry hear any of this. It took a few days, but Harry was once again his cheerful self, and Sasuke wasn't going to risk Harry going into a bad mood again.

However, Naruto was prone to talking about missions, especially when he was over at Sasuke's apartment, so Sasuke had to find a way for Naruto to keep his mouth shut. After a few hours of hard thinking, Sasuke face-palmed at the time he wasted. There was a simple way to convince Naruto: tell him the truth.

Sasuke explained to a wide eyed Naruto that his 'Guardian Spirit' had suddenly become over protective ever since the Land of Waves mission, so any mention about more missions might make him angry. To Sasuke's satisfaction, Naruto agreed immediately to not mention anything about missions in or near Sasuke's apartment. He even made sure to go and buy 'offerings' for the spirit. (Harry was slightly confused, but still pleased at the food nonetheless.)

It had been a few weeks after their return, that Sasuke started seeing a bunch of unfamiliar faces in the village. Naturally, when he headed towards the direction Naruto and Sakura were at, they ended up being confronted by three shinobi. Their hitai-ate showed that they were from Suna, the Village Hidden in the Sands. After being questioned, they explained that they were here for the chunin exams. After leaving, they were all able to breathe freely. Out of all of them, the short red-head had been the one to make Sasuke's skin crawl, and from the expressions his other two teammates made, they were wary of him too.

During their meeting with Kakashi (Sasuke silently cursed himself when he realized he, once again, forgot to question Harry about Kakashi having the sharingan), before any of them could bring up meeting the other shinobi or what the chunin exams were, Kakashi held out a paper.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, looking at the papers blankly.

"The form you need to fill out if you want to be entered into the chunin exams," Kakashi said cheerfully.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Gripping the form in his hand tightly, Sasuke made his way to the apartment. Inside him, both excitement and nervousness were bubbling. The Chunin Exams were a perfect chance for him to prove himself, however...

He gripped the form even tighter to the point that it was starting to get crinkled by his hand when he thought about what Harry may or may not say about him doing the exams. He knew he should be more worried about the exams. After all, it was, no doubt, going to be a lot harder than anything he (or the others) have done before, but the idea that he may, even a little, disappoint Harry unnerved him to the point that he didn’t even want to bring up the topic to Harry, and hope that Harry wouldn’t notice him take the exams. Sasuke actually laughed out loud at that. As if that would ever happen.

Sooner than he thought, he ended up in front of the door to the apartment. Taking a deep breath, he unlocked the door and went inside. Immediately, he located Harry sitting at the kitchen table reading another village newsletter. Despite his nervousness, Sasuke grinned a little. Knowing Harry was just mentally ripping the paper apart, Sasuke entered the kitchen, and sat down across from Harry. Blinking, Harry stared at him.

"When did you come in?" Harry asked. Sasuke stared at him. He didn't notice his presence?

"Just now," Sasuke said, glancing down at the newsletter. Something caught his eye, and he immediately reached out and picked it up. Examining the now identified ring, he fingered the insignia and the crack of the dark stone. It looked familiar. "Is this yours?" Harry, who had been crumbling up the newsletter, looked at Sasuke's hand, and widened his eyes.

"It is," Harry said slowly. "I forgot I had taken it off." Sasuke held out the ring, and Harry immediately grabbed it, and placed it on his finger. When Harry still looked a little distracted, Sasuke cleared his throat. When Harry looked at him, he held up the form. Harry stayed silent as he read the form. Sasuke mentally counted down to when Harry would start saying something, but as the minutes were ticking by, Harry stayed silent. Sasuke wondered if he should clear his throat again, when Harry finally looked away from the form to look at Sasuke.

"Do you want to take the exam?" Harry asked. Sasuke stared at him. Did he hear right?

"I do," Sasuke slowly responded. Harry's expression was blank, so Sasuke had no idea what he was thinking. "But I know I'm not fully ready," Sasuke added. He saw a corner of Harry's lips turn up a little, and Sasuke felt some of the tension let up. "We did do a lot of difficult things, but this will, by far, be one of the hardest things we do," Sasuke continued, "but even so, I want to try. I know Naruto also wants to do it, and..." Sasuke drifted off. He didn't actually know what Sakura wanted to do.

"In order to be eligible, you have to be in a group of three," Harry said, looking directly into Sasuke's eyes which widened momentarily. "Would you force her?"

"No," Sasuke said, knowing exactly what Harry was talking about. Harry smiled a bit more, and Sasuke relaxed even more, and tentatively smiled back at Harry. Harry wasn't angry or upset with him. Harry started to frown a little when he looked over the form again.

"July 1st... That's really cutting it close," he muttered to himself. "That is nowhere near enough time for you guys to prepare," he continued. Sasuke kept his mouth shut as Harry continued to mumble under his breath. "What the hell was Hatake thinking?!" Harry suddenly shouted, startling Sasuke. "He should have told you earlier if he was going to nominate you guys for the exam."

"Maybe he didn't know it going to take place here in the Leaf Village until recently," Sasuke suggested. Harry snorted.

"Yeah right. Events like this are planned years beforehand, like the World Cup and the muggle Olympics."

"The what?" Harry waved away Sasuke's question.

"Never mind. Just know that these events are planned beforehand so the host has time to prepare," Harry explained. Sasuke began to frown a little as well. Kakashi had to have known, so why didn't he mention it at least a little earlier. Sasuke knew that it was the truth when he told Harry that he wasn't ready, and even a few extra days could have been helpful. There wasn't enough time for Kakashi to teach them anything, if he was even going to. Sasuke moved the form so that it was out of his immediate reach. There was a likely chance that he wouldn't be able to get another form if he destroyed this one in his frustration.

“Do you think there is anything Kakashi-sensei can teach us before the exam?” Sasuke asked. Harry slowly shook his head.

“The only thing you have time for would be going over the basics…” Harry trailed off, and had a faraway look in his eyes. After a few moments, Harry looked back at Sasuke with a thoughtful expression. “Follow me,” he said, standing up quickly. Sasuke blinked and when he registered what Harry had said, Harry was already out the door. Jumping to his feet, Sasuke raced after Harry, who hadn’t even slowed down a bit. After a few minutes of walking, it was plain to Sasuke where they going.

Entering the gate into the compound, Sasuke stayed close to Harry and focused on his back. The emptiness of the place made everything seem cold and Sasuke couldn’t hold back a shiver. Going deeper into the compound, Harry didn't look like he was stopping anytime soon, and Sasuke gave in and looked around a little. A certain building made him freeze.

_In the temple under the seventh tatami mat─_

“Sasuke?” Sasuke looked back at Harry who was standing some distance away down the path. Sasuke mentally shook himself, and ran towards Harry. It was only when he reached Harry that he recognized where he had stopped. It had been many years since he had last seen the building. Even now, the building looked like it was in ruins. Last time, however, the interior looked like a regular house. Sasuke glanced at Harry, who smiled at him a little, before he headed toward the ruined building. When Sasuke followed Harry inside, he was shocked to see that the inside was in ruins also. Harry kept moving, so Sasuke didn’t waste time examining the area. Carefully stepping over rotting and ruined furniture, Harry and Sasuke paused outside a door located towards the back part of the building. Harry slowly opened the door, and Sasuke shivered at the blast of cold air that seemed to pass him. Already slightly unnerved by being surrounded by ruins in the abandoned compound, it didn’t help that the space beyond the door was pitch black.

“Do you want to wait here for me?” Sasuke glared at Harry.

“I’m going with you,” he said stubbornly. Harry gave a small laugh and held out his hand. Sasuke glared at him, the cold feeling abated slightly.

“I’m not a─” Harry laughed again.

“I’m not patronizing you,” he said soothingly. “You actually need to hold onto me to get through the door.” Sasuke gave him a skeptical look, and made his way through the doorway. Moments later, Sasuke was nursing a bruised nose, and was glaring at Harry who was trying to not laugh. Harry held out his hand again, and this time, without complaint, Sasuke allowed Harry to pull him through the pitch black doorway. Sasuke still couldn’t see anything, but Harry seemed to know where he was going, and when they started to descend, Sasuke realized they were going down a flight of stairs.

Wondering how Harry could see where they were going, Sasuke tightened his grip on Harry’s hand. When it felt that they were no longer going down, Harry slowed down, and let go of Sasuke’s hand. When Harry flickered out of sight, Sasuke opened his mouth to yell, but almost at once, Harry came into view, along with an entire room. Letting the words die in his throat, Sasuke turned around, expecting to see a set of stairs, but when he only saw a wall, Sasuke slowly turned back to Harry, who was on the other side of the room. When Sasuke made to follow him, Harry held out a hand.

“Don’t move,” he said softly. Sasuke stilled. Harry crouched down to what appears to be a trunk. However, from Sasuke’s position, he couldn’t see what was inside. A quick look around the room revealed that the room was empty save for the trunk. There wasn’t even an exit. The ceiling, floor, and the four walls were all bare except for a small torch on each of the walls. Feeling unnerved again, Sasuke went back to watching Harry, who then stood up, and walked back to Sasuke. Sasuke immediately caught sight of the scroll that was in his hand, but before he could comment about it, Harry grabbed his arm, and soon enough, they were back in the ruined house. Taking a deep breath to get rid of the taste of stale air, Sasuke backed away from the now closed door.

“Can we go back now?” Sasuke asked. Harry nodded. Sasuke didn’t fully calm down until they reached the apartment.

“I apologize,” Harry said, looking at Sasuke in concern. Sasuke was breathing heavily as though he just ran a marathon. “I thought you could handle that place…” Sasuke had half a mind to question Harry about that room, but Sasuke would rather not think about the room. Instead, his sight fell upon the scroll. Harry wordlessly handed it over. “When you get a chance, look it over. It’s the only thing I can think of to help you.” Sasuke looked at Harry quickly.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“For a few hours,” Harry said, patting him on the head. Sasuke watched Harry leave the apartment. Setting the scroll onto the kitchen table, Sasuke quickly broke the small seal and unwound it open. With widening eyes, Sasuke took in the different instructions for various fire techniques. Who had written all of this? The handwriting was vaguely familiar, but Sasuke decided to put that thought aside in favor of devouring the contents of the scroll.

Hours later, when Harry returned, Sasuke was still at the table in the same position immersed in the scroll. Over the next few days, it was hard pressed to get Sasuke away from the scroll. With so much information written, Sasuke wondered why it had been put away and hidden. It was a good resource about at least a couple of chunin exams, and Sasuke had considered sharing it with Naruto and Sakura. However, when Harry brought up that specific question the next day, Sasuke immediately refused.

He had no idea why, but he wasn't going to let them touch it, not when it had been written by one of his clan members, because without a doubt, he recognized the handwriting. He had seen it before. He just couldn't pin point whose it was. Harry's handwriting was slightly messy (though readable), and the person who had written the scroll had very neat, controlled handwriting. Everything had been noted, all diagrams explained, and every move and jutsu listed had situational uses listed along with pros and cons.

••••••

"Good luck," Harry said, giving Sasuke a hug. He held him for a few moments longer than usual, but Sasuke didn't say anything. "If at any point you feel overwhelmed–"

"I know," Sasuke deadpanned. "If I'm still able to, I should drop out and try again next time." Sasuke had already mentally decided that he would see this through to the end, but there was no point in letting Harry know. He would just needlessly worry. Harry was giving him an odd look again, and Sasuke felt his annoyance disappear a little. "I'll be fine," Sasuke said in what he hoped was a reassuring voice. He tried smiling, and started to grin when Harry began to smile a little. After another (slightly more suffocating) hug, Harry let Sasuke leave. Realizing that he was behind schedule, he started to jog towards the bridge where the three of them agreed to meet up.

Finally spotting them, Sasuke slowed down. Reaching them, they all looked at each other before wordlessly coming to a decision. They started to silently head towards the academy. They weren't going to wait for Kakashi.

The entire way, no one, not even Naruto, said a word. They entered the building and headed towards the room listed on the form. A commotion up ahead made them stop.

"What the..." Sakura muttered, breaking the silence. Naruto looked up ahead, curious. Around the classroom that they were supposed to meet, there was a crowd of students trying to get through, while two others were blocking the entrance. Sasuke glanced at the door number and discretely pulled out the form that had the meeting room number and glanced back.

"Do you guys see something off?" Sasuke muttered. Naruto gave him a blank look, but Sakura was frowning. Her eyebrows furrowed, and a moment later, when her eyes widened, Sasuke knew she realized.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, thankfully keeping his voice down. Sasuke stared at Sakura, who got the hint, and whispered to Naruto about the illusion placed on the room number showing that it was the correct room when in fact, it was the wrong one. Sasuke wondered why they even got tricked in the first place; it should have been obvious that they were on the wrong floor.

"Should we say something?" Sakura asked. Before Sasuke could say anything, Naruto shouted out. Sasuke blinked and just noticed that the two guarding the door were beating some of the others up. Naruto moved forward to intervene.

“Naruto’s got it,” Sasuke said. Naruto began to confront the two at the door and announced that they were at the wrong place, before one of them moved to attack him. Before Sasuke could even move, one of the kids that had apparently been beat up earlier got in between them and easily blocked their attacks. Gaping at the guy in the green suit, Sasuke barely heard the teammate of the guy reprimand him for giving himself away. He only snapped back to attention when he noticed the guy in the green suit trying to flirt with Sakura. Pitying her, he let Naruto deal with that situation while he took in their new (possible) opponent. Recognizing him as a Hyuga, they made eye contact for a moment.

Deciding that they wasted enough time here as it was, Sasuke broke off the eye contact, and motioned for Sakura and Naruto to follow him. Ignoring the others that were staring at them, they made their way up to the right floor (while side-stepping a confrontation with the green guy who announced himself to be Rock Lee).

When reaching the correct room, they were surprised to see Kakashi waiting for them. After mentioning that to qualify, all three of them had to show up, Kakashi wished them all good luck, and they entered the room.

●●●●●●

Finding himself to be pacing again, Harry forced himself to stop and sit down. He wasn’t worried. He was confident that Sasuke and his team would get past the first part of the exam. It was the easier part after all, and he knew Sasuke practically devoured the scroll Harry dug up. Considering whom it was from, he should have made a better attempt at storing it better. He briefly considered hunting down some sort of alcohol, but the ones he found here were never able to match good old fire whiskey.

Sighing for the umpteenth time, Harry put his head down, and once again reassured himself that Sasuke was going to be fine. It was just some sort of information _thing_. It changed every time of course, but from what he could remember from what the past Uchihas that had taken the exams (he was bored and had nothing to do _but_ to eavesdrop), they all had something to do with information, whether it was somehow getting it, hiding it, or even decrypting it. If he recalled correctly, Itachi’s had been decrypting information and the second part had been, basically, an elaborate version of muggle tag using that information (not that anyone ever called it that out loud, but he did overhear Itachi complain to a toddler Sasuke about it, not that Sasuke actually knew what he was talking about).

While he was on that line of thought, maybe he should have gotten the other scroll too while he was in that building. Itachi didn’t waste his time for nothing making them after all. That way, he wouldn’t have to go back to that building that was his other prison before the scroll.

Harry smiled a little at the thought of little Itachi. During his first (and only) chunin exam, he had been so nervous that he was shaking and stayed awake all night. It had been funny and adorable, but also sobering considering that he was only a kid. He was just a child, and he had to go through so much; had to do so much. Even though Harry acknowledged that he himself had a shitty childhood, it was nothing compared to what Itachi and even Sasuke had to deal with. At the very least, even if he couldn’t help Itachi, there was still Sasuke. While Itachi tried to protect him from afar, Harry would do his best to protect him here.

Sighing once again, Harry put his head down on the kitchen table, and softly fingered his ring.

●●●●●●

Harry must have (once again) fallen asleep at the table, because the next thing he knew was that a grinning Sasuke was shaking him awake.

"I take it things went well," Harry said sleepily, massaging some kinks out of his neck from falling asleep at the table. Sasuke just continued to grin. "Well?" Harry said, raising an eyebrow. That was all Sasuke needed to launch into detail about what happened.

"... so with that, they told us to report tomorrow at the 44th training grounds," Sasuke finished. Harry frowned.

“I could’ve sworn that was the Forest of Death,” Harry said. Sasuke groaned.

“Sounds like a harmless place.” Harry laughed.

“Lovely place indeed,” Harry said.

“And the second part is going to be much harder than the first part,” Sasuke said. “According to what was written in the scroll, most exams follow a similar format. A few of the exams mentioned that the second part would be a survival one. Another had the exam be a retrieval, one where you had to find something, and another was one where the genins had to safely deliver information to another group,” Sasuke explained. “So I guess since it's taking place in the forest, it's going to be survival...?" Harry nodded.

"Probably something else too," Harry added. "Too much of a waste if they didn't do anything else."

"That makes sense." Sasuke paused and fidgeted slightly. Harry patiently waited for him to speak. "Is there another part to the scroll?" he asked in what he thought was an offhandedly manner. Harry hid his grin.

"Yes, there is." Sasuke waited for him to elaborate.

"And...?" Sasuke prompted.

"It's back in the room." When Sasuke hesitated, Harry knew he noticed how he had reacted to that place. "Don't worry though," Harry reassured, "I'll get it out for you before you come back." Sasuke smiled back gratefully.

"Thank you." Harry was able to only hold back for a few moments, before he squished Sasuke into a hug. At this point, it happened to Sasuke enough that he knew he would be freed faster if he didn't struggle.

"Since we have an idea what the test will be tomorrow, I think you should pack the necessities," Harry said when he let go. Sasuke nodded, and the two of them, for the next hour, began to discuss what Sasuke would and wouldn't need, with Harry, once in awhile, accidentally getting them off topic and, for a time, was cleaning and organizing instead of packing.

"H-How did Itachi's chunin exam go?" Sasuke asked out of the blue. Harry paused in his reorganizing.

"He passed on his first try, but if you're asking if he was a shaking nervous wreck right before it, then yes." Harry grinned at the incredulous look on Sasuke's face.

"Really?" Harry nodded.

"Couldn't even fall asleep the night before," Harry added. Sasuke still looked stunned.

"How was his second part of the exam?"

"It was information retrieval."

"That's it?" Sasuke said. Harry nodded.

"Well, it was a unique take on it." Sasuke looked thoughtful.

"It wasn't by chance some crazy version of tag, was it?" Harry snorted. He didn’t know that was exactly how Itachi had described it. Harry looked at the supplies that they put together for Sasuke.

“Harry, I think you went a bit overboard,” Sasuke said slowly. There were about three bags on the floor filled heavily to the point where the bags couldn’t even close.

“Let’s unpack and repack━”

“How about you leave this to me?” Sasuke said quickly. Harry sighed and nodded, and wished that he had Hermione’s beaded bag, with modifications of course. He wouldn’t be caught dead with a girl’s beaded purple purse in public.

●●●●●●

The next morning, Sasuke was forced into Harry’s crushing arms again. Once Harry let go, Sasuke tried to subtly take deep breaths, but Harry pretended to ignore it.

"You'll be fine. Just calm down, and do whatever you want in the meantime."

One good luck later, Sasuke (with his much lighter and subtler pack), was on his way to meet with up with the others.

As soon as he was out of sight, Harry shut the door, but continued to stare at it. He knew Sasuke was rather intuitive, and was bound to figure out who had written that scroll, but he seemed calm about it. Sure, he had been awkward when he was asking questions, but he was still a lot calmer than Harry thought he would be. Harry assumed that this meant Sasuke wasn't as angry at Itachi as he had been in the past. That was good; kind of sudden, but good.

Stepping away from the door, Harry absentmindedly cleaned up after the _packing_ they did last night. To be perfectly honest, he was feeling both uneasy and guilty (disregarding the constant anger and annoyance at his own situation). He couldn't even pinpoint what it was that was causing it. He checked up on Itachi, who was doing as fine as someone in his position could be. Sasuke was happy as can be, and is about to do the second part of the chunin exam in the infamous forest of death, but Harry was both confident and slightly worried that he'll be injured, but he also knew that wasn't the cause of uneasiness.

Harry ran a hand through his hair. What was the issue then? At times like this, he wished that there was someone else who knew of his existence. Pausing, he stared at the ring on his hand. Did he have enough magic stored up yet? 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

'Maybe I should've grabbed some paint instead of chalk,' Harry mused. He was still holding said piece of chalk as he looked around. Grass, grass, grass, oh look, more grass. If it weren't for the fact that he wanted to be some place secluded and away from buildings, he would've already relocated.

Harry continued to walking around the forest located behind the Uchiha compound. After a few more minutes, Harry resisted cheering out loud when he finally came across a spot devoid of any grass. Still wishing he purchased the paint, he painstakingly started to draw the circle. If he had full access to his magic, this wouldn't have been necessary in the slightest. However, life always seemed to take great pleasure in throwing him under the bus. Maybe Harry should look into being a pessimist full time.

When the (crude) circle was drawn into the ground, Harry begun to take out the cloak and the elder wand, and placed them both in the middle. He finally then took off the ring, sat down inside the circle, and began to concentrate.

••••••

Sasuke mentally voiced his assent when Naruto muttered that after this, he would never step in another creepy forest again. As it was, they, somehow, haven't run into anyone yet. They did, however, hear the screaming of other groups as who knows what happened to them.

"We really should come up with a plan," Sakura said. Sasuke nodded, and gestured to a seemingly secluded area. They all sat down in a small circle, but no one made any motion to speak. When another scream tore through the area, Sakura jumped and nearly screamed. A moment later, she settled down, but was still noticeably shaking. Naruto gave her a concerned look, but Sakura shook her head. Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look, but didn't vocalize their thoughts. Sasuke was sure Sakura was ready for this, but if she's panicking now, then they'll be in trouble later.

"I really didn't want to do this," Sakura muttered. Naruto looked at her sympathetically. "I'm a 100% sure that I'm nowhere near ready for this." Sasuke nodded.

"Same here," he said, causing both Naruto and Sakura to stare at him in shock.

"You think you're not ready?" Naruto said. Sakura was still gaping.

"The Land of Waves mission opened my eyes, among other things," Sasuke said, absentmindedly starting to trail a finger through the dirt next to him. "One wrong move could get us killed. Hell, one wrong word to someone could get us killed. Most of the people we're competing against are stronger than us. They've been training longer and have more experience. That doesn't mean, though, that I'm going to give up. My main goal is to just stay alive right now.” Sakura gave a nervous laugh.

“I think that’s everyone’s goal, right now,” she said.

“I don’t know,” Naruto said, “some of those people kinda looked a little unbalanced. Who knows what they would do if they’re desperate…”

“Then everyone who is sane and not obsessed with this crazy, almost pointless exam’s goal is to stay alive,” Sakura amended, causing Naruto to snigger.

“It’s not that crazy—” When Sakura narrowed her eyes, Naruto quickly changed his sentence, “not that pointless. It’s the only way rank up, you know.”

“A less hostile exam is preferable,” she said dryly. Sasuke mentally thought that Harry would agree with her.

“How else would they test if we’re ready to be chunins?” Sasuke asked. “Without putting us in these kinds of situations and getting through them, how would we show them what we can do?”

“I don’t know, maybe some sort of simulated mission done either team wise or individually,” Sakura explained. “That way, another person or group from another village won’t try to kill you, just the proctors.”

“Uh, guys. As much as I’m sure you would love to discuss this,” Naruto cut in, “we’re kinda in the middle of the Forest of Death with a bunch of things that want to kill us.”

“Oh, right. We were supposed to come up with a plan,” Sakura said, coming to attention and sitting up straight. “We should probably come up with some code in case we get separated and someone from another team takes advantage of it…” she trailed off when both Naruto and Sasuke stared at her. “Uh sorry, I mean—” Sasuke shook his head.

“No, you’re right. That’s a really good idea.” Sakura blushed.

“I read a book about spies and that’s what they did,” Sakura said.

“What should be the code?” Naruto asked, looking between them. Sasuke hesitated for a moment, and reached into his pack and pulled out a blank scroll. He paused again, and quickly wrote out a sentence with a small pencil stub. He slowly turned the scroll towards them so they could read it. A moment later, he turned it back towards himself, and wrote out the response, and again turned it towards them. As soon as they nodded in acknowledgement, Sasuke quickly ripped, and burned that part of the scroll.

“It works,” Sakura said slowly.

“That sounds like something I should’ve come up with,” Naruto deadpanned. Sasuke shrugged.

“If it works, it works,” he said, slightly defensive. Sasuke also mentally added that if it worked for Itachi, then it should work for him. Naruto grabbed the pencil and ripped the scroll from him, and quickly wrote something down. Turning it around, Sasuke and Sakura leaned in to read.

I think we should find a spot to settle, and set up a buttload of traps.

And is someone actually listening in on us, or are you just being a paranoid bastard?

Sasuke sighed, and grabbed the pencil.

Someone is actually near us. Underground in fact.

We should. You’ll be in charge of setting up the traps, since you have experience. We should maybe have both false and real ones.

Once Naruto read the note, he started to grin.

“You just read my mind,” he said, continuing to grin. Sakura read the note and nodded.

“Sounds good,” she said, handing the scroll back to Sasuke. Sasuke ripped that part off, and burned it.

“Time for operation: get that scroll,” Naruto announced, standing up.

“How about operation: getting out of here alive and intact,” Sakura suggested, dusting herself as she stood up.

“Or operation: move,” Sasuke said dryly. As they moved out of the area, Naruto paused.

“Mind if I erase your jewelry design?” Naruto asked, clearly amused. Sasuke blinked, and looked down.

“I didn’t realize I drew that,” he said. “Erase it.” Naruto compiled and used his foot to wipe it away.

“Getting jewelry with your initial on it is really dumb by the way,” Naruto added.

“I’m not getting jewelry with my name on it,” Sasuke said sharply.

“Then why were you drawing some fancy ‘S’ thing on the ground?” Naruto said smugly.

“That counts as doodling, and we were busy making a plan, so I wasn’t actually paying attention,” he hissed back.

“Can you guys argue later?” Sakura said, sounding slightly annoyed. Naruto and Sasuke kept their mouths shut after that. After a few minutes, Naruto stopped at a spot, and grinned.

“Number one,” he said softly. Sasuke raised his eyebrows. Did that mean he was intending to make traps in more than one place? “Grab as many branches as you can,” he told them, while grabbing his own pack and pulling out wires and… a pack of un-inflated balloons?

“Just branches?” Sakura said, uncertain.

“Just branches,” Naruto confirmed. Sasuke and Sakura walked away from Naruto and went to search.

“What could he possibly do with only branches?” Sakura asked. “Distraction maybe, but nothing destructive…”

“I just want to know what he’s using balloons for,” Sasuke muttered.

“That too.” After grabbing as much as they could, they headed back to where Naruto was, who then immediately grabbed it out of their hands, and promptly ordered them to go grab more.

By the time Naruto was satisfied with the traps he made, Sasuke and Sakura had to make a total of four trips to get the all the branches Naruto wanted. If it weren’t for the fact that Sasuke was 100% sure that they were still being followed, he would have asked Naruto to explain what he did. From what Sasuke could see, there was wire everywhere within the branches of the higher trees that had to be connected to the branches that he and Sakura brought to him.

“Next,” Naruto announced. Already deciding that they should just let Naruto do whatever he wanted at this point, he and Sakura just followed Naruto and did whatever he told them to do or grab.

“I swear he’s just doing this on purpose,” Sakura grumbled. This time, Naruto wanted logs, and the two of them were delayed when another group (they couldn’t see who) went by them. Thankfully, they weren’t seen, but they vowed to be more careful.

By the time night fell, they (Naruto) had set up a total of five traps in the five different areas. Naruto wrote that he incorporated both real and false traps, but Sasuke had no way of knowing if he did (or if Naruto actually made traps instead of goofing around), so Sasuke just took his word for it.

“Let’s rest here for the night,” Sasuke said, settling down in an area where the trees made a natural barrier on three sides. “I’ll take the first watch. In a couple of hours, I’ll wake you up, Sakura, and then Naruto will guard after you.” They both nodded, and within ten minutes, both of them were fast asleep. Shivering, Sasuke kept watch while he distantly sensed the person from earlier still watching them.

••••••

The next morning, after eating quickly and packing their small camp, Naruto immediately demanded to go and check his traps. To Sasuke and Sakura’s surprise, they actually did catch and trap a team. Though Sasuke felt slightly guilty that is was another Konoha team. It was a group of older genins that none of them recognized, which lessened the guilt of taking their scroll and leaving them there. Unfortunately for them, it was the same scroll that they had, but Sasuke suggested that they still take it. That way, there was less of a competition for whatever the next part would be, or they could use it to bribe their way out of a situation if worse came to worse.

The other traps turned out empty, but Naruto wasn’t too bothered by it. Sasuke still had no idea how he had placed the traps. The one that caught the Konoha group had been all wires with logs and trees anchoring them, and sharpened branches to make spikes placed close to vital points ensuring that they would not be able to escape easily.

Coming to a unanimous decision, they headed towards the center of the forest, close to where the tower was supposed to be. According to Itachi’s scroll, some groups usually stayed close to wherever the meeting point of the exam was, to capture and hoard items. They would either try to take them down, or somehow negotiate an exchange.

Sasuke sensed their presence before he heard them, and Naruto must have also sensed them at the same time, because he grabbed onto Sakura and jumped out of the way when the paper bomb landed near them. Even though they managed to get out of the way in time, when it exploded, they were still disoriented. When the smoke cleared, a single person stood in the middle.

“Kusagakure,” Sakura said with a gasp. “Was he the one that was─” Sasuke nodded. This was the person that had been following them since they started. Before Sasuke could even think of doing anything, he made eye contact with him and froze. All Sasuke could even think about at that moment was that he and the others were going to die. He dimly noted that someone was trying to say something, but the image of a kunai going straight through his body and killing him overtook his mind. This was it; this person was going to kill them─

BAM!

Clutching his now throbbing head, Sasuke stared at a frightened Naruto.

“Snap out of it!” It took Sasuke a few moments to realize what happened. Straightening up, he ignored the pain, and focused back onto the other shinobi as Naruto tried to snap Sakura out of the genjutsu.

“What do you want?” Sasuke yelled at him, making sure to avoid looking directly at the other shinobi’s eyes. The person didn’t answer, but he continued to smirk. The moment Naruto managed to bring Sakura back to the present, Sasuke decided that they should run. Making eye contact, Naruto immediately got the message.

“Running away now, are we?” the other shinobi said finally. Seeing that he still hadn't moved, Sasuke took his chance, and indicated to Naruto to start running. They didn’t get far, as the moment they moved away from the other shinobi, another paper bomb appeared near them, and Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto separated to protect themselves.

The other shinobi moved, and in an instant, was above Sasuke with his kunai out. Sasuke managed to, just in time, to pull his own out to protect himself. The pressure from his attack, though, drove Sasuke into the ground. Quickly getting to his feet, Sasuke couldn’t see where the other shinobi went, but turning around, he immediately jumped sideways to dodge a lunging snake. Looking up, he spotted where the other shinobi had gone. Standing on a branch high up in the tree, he brought his hands together, and quickly pressed the palm onto the branch he was standing on, and right behind him, popping into existence was the biggest snake Sasuke ever laid eyes on. Once again immobile due to shock, Naruto had to snap him back and dragged him away before the snake crashed down in the spot where Sasuke had been.

“Seriously, you’re the one that’s dragging us down right now,” Naruto said. Sasuke shook himself. “Please tell me you’re not going to freeze on us?” Sasuke shook his head.

“I was badly caught off guard,” he said quickly. “Since it’s obvious he’s after me, you and Sakura get out of here, and─” Naruto grabbed the collar of his shirt.

“Finish that sentence, and I will punch the daylights out of you─ Snake!” They were once again forced to separate when the giant snake barreled towards them. Expecting the guy to come after him, Sasuke was surprised when the shinobi changed tracked and went straight for Naruto.

Furious at himself for how useless he had been so far, he quickly shot out a fireball at the snake to distract it. It seemed to have worked, so Sasuke made a beeline move towards the area where Naruto and the other shinobi had been. At the last minute, the snake regained its sense and went to lunge at Sasuke again, but this time, a kunai with a paper bomb attached to it went into its side and exploded. Sending Sakura a grateful smile, Sasuke continued to search for Naruto.

Spotting Naruto on the ground, he immediately landed next to him and saw that he was unconscious. Grabbing his water bottle, he splashed Naruto’s face, hoping that it would wake him up. When there was no change, Sasuke gave up for the moment to find the other shinobi. Hoping that Sakura, somehow, had the snake situation under control, Sasuke jumped backed into the trees, and kept his senses on high alert.

Spotting him hidden among the trees, Sasuke grabbed a bunch of kunais and a spool of wire, and quickly tied them at the end of the kunais. Activating his sharingan, Sasuke took a few moments to judge the other shinobi’s position and the area around him before he threw the kunais and manipulated them enough to wrap around the other shinobi and the trunk of the tree, trapping him there. Without hesitating, Sasuke, recalling the technique from Itachi’s scroll, quickly shot a small, but strong stream of fire along the wire, which quickly raced towards and engulfed the other shinobi. Seeing no way that he could escape, Sasuke relaxed. Loosening his grip on the wires, however, was a mistake.

Sasuke jumped back and landed on the branch of another tree, when the other shinobi escaped from his bonds. Sasuke’s eye widened when he took in the sight of the other shinobi. His face looked like the skin had melted off. The other shinobi just reached up and pulled the rest of the skin off like it was nothing, revealing a different face. Sasuke's eyes widened as he took in his pale, snakelike face that was currently smirking. Now having trouble breathing (even though he had no idea why he felt so much fear by just looking at his face), Sasuke was beginning to panic.

"You really do have a lot to learn, Sasuke," the man said. Sasuke tried to force himself to move, but to no avail. "You're nothing like Itachi," Sasuke stared at him in shock, "but I suppose you'll have to do for the time being." Sasuke had no idea what he meant, but he knew it wasn't good. Sasuke was close to hyperventilating. This guy wanted him for something, something bad. The familiar suffocating feeling that he had felt back when they were fighting Zabuza was back. He had to get away. He couldn't just sit here. The man began to open his mouth. Sasuke had to move. The man's neck began to stretch. He had to move. The man's neck became more elongated, and stretched impossibly. He had to move. Facing Sasuke, the head suddenly moved towards him. He had to… Just when the head was close enough for Sasuke to feel its breath, Sasuke shut his eyes─ Move!

In a single moment, exactly like how it had been back at the bridge, Sasuke’s insides felt squished, and he couldn’t breathe. That feeling only lasted for a second. When Sasuke took a deep breath, he reached out to the nearest object to hold himself steady, while fighting down the urge to vomit. Opening his eyes, he was relieved to see that the other shinobi wasn’t right in front of him anymore. Scanning the area around him, Sasuke spotted him a good distance away. He was back to normal, and was staring at Sasuke in shock. His shock then turned into anger, and Sasuke knew whatever fluke that just happened won’t happen again. Still disoriented, he grabbed out a kunai, and held it out in front of himself just as the other shinobi moved.

BOOM!

Sasuke was thrown back, and for the second time, the world around him spun a little. Giving up trying to steady himself, he clung to the tree to wait out the blast. Seconds turned into minutes, and by the time Sasuke straightened up, it had been nearly five minutes. One explosion had, apparently, triggered a whole chain of them, and the other shinobi had been right in the middle of it. Sasuke had been far enough away that he hadn’t been caught in the direct explosion, but when he stood up, a sharp pain in his arm told him that he didn't escape unscathed.

"Sasuke-kun!”

“Oi! Sasuke!” Sakura and Naruto! As quickly as he could, Sasuke got down the tree, and saw Sakura and Naruto (the latter leaning heavily on Sakura) waving at him. Besides a few bruises and scratches, they looked to be physically fine.

"What happened to that snake?" he asked Sakura.

"I managed to stop it with enough bombs," Sakura said, "but just a few moments ago, it disappeared. Since it was a summon, it must have disappeared when that guy left." Sasuke looked above them, but he could neither see nor sense the other shinobi anymore. He turned to Naruto.

"What did he do to you? I couldn't wake you up." Naruto shrugged.

"I have no idea," he replied. "I just remembered that he hit me in the stomach. I tried to turn so it wasn't a complete hit, but I still passed out somehow. The next thing I remembered was Sakura hitting me." Sasuke looked at Sakura who blushed.

"It worked," she mumbled.

"Can you walk?" Sasuke asked Naruto.

"Kinda..." Sakura spotted his arm.

"Your arm is broken!"

"The explosion was loud, so we have to move before someone comes here," Sasuke said.

"But your arm!" Naruto looked concerned as well.

"That needs to be taken care of first," he said.

"That can be done later," Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

Sasuke, with his uninjured arm, grabbed one of Naruto's arm, and Sakura grabbed the other, and they slowly moved out of the area. "Do you guys even know what triggered that explosion?"

"Uh..." Sasuke stared at Naruto who looked both sheepish and guilty.

"We were lucky that guy confronted us here," Naruto said. It took Sasuke a moment to put it together.

"You set up traps here?" Naruto grinned. "We were never here!"

“While you guys were off getting me stuff, I made some detours just in case. Sasuke, you were the one that always told me to be prepared.”

“Naruto…” Sakura said slowly. Naruto turned towards her, grinning. One look at her expression and a look of fear crossed his face. “Did you purposefully send us to grab all that stuff for no reason?”

“B-But it helped. If I never did any of that, then we never would have gotten that creep away,” Naruto said quickly.

“He has a point,” Sasuke added when Naruto shot him a pleading look. Sakura stopped glaring, but she still looked annoyed.

“Where did you even get that many paper bombs?” she asked.

“I splurged all my money on them, but now I have absolutely none left.”

“After this, I swear I’ll buy all the paper bombs you want,” Sasuke said seriously.

“Same here,” Sakura said, smiling a little. They walked for a bit more, before Sasuke spotted an area similarly guarded by trees like where they had made camp the night before.

“We still need to hunt down an Earth scroll—” Sakura cleared her throat. Sasuke and Naruto stared at her as she reached into her pack. They both gaped at her as she pulled out a slightly burnt Earth scroll.

“How did you get that?!”

“During the explosion, I saw it fly out,” Sakura explained. “That guy must have had it, since he was so close to the explosion…”

“I could kiss you—”

“Don’t,” Sakura said shortly. Naruto continued to grin.

“We should head to the tower then,” Sasuke said. “The longer we stay here, the more of a chance someone will come by to attack us.”

“But you two need to rest,” Sakura protested. Naruto shook his head.

“No, he’s right. We should go,” he said.

“Besides, if we wrap my arm, I’ll be good for a bit,” Sasuke said. Sakura and Naruto both stared at him.

“Yeah… right…” Sakura slowly massaged her temple.

“Boys…”

••••••

Despite the exhaustion that Harry felt, he couldn't help but grin widely. When he felt tears prickling the corner of his eyes, he didn't bother being subtle about wiping them away.

"It's been awhile," Harry said softly to them smiling face of Hermione Granger.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Since they still had a few days to go till the deadline, Team 7 decided to do their best to recover their energy. Sakura recovered fine from her injuries, as well as Naruto (though he did complain about feeling weird), but Sasuke's arm had broken in two areas; his wrist and his forearm, as well as splintered in other areas. Though the medics that Iruka had called for from the tower treated his arm, the cast he needed prevented him from lifting his arm or really using his left arm, which meant that he couldn't perform any jutsu. Even worse, it would take at least a month for him to have full use of his arm again. Naruto kept on apologizing, but Sasuke waved it away. If it weren't for Naruto, who knows what would have happened. 

They hoped that by staying in one area, they would avoid encountering other groups that had also made it to the tower. Their meeting with the group from Suna was still fresh in their mind. Sasuke couldn't recall the last time he felt that unnerved. Even meeting with Zabuza or Haku wasn't that bad. They all agreed that they should watch out for the red head. 

The day after that, they had a surprise visit from Team 8, which consisted of Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga, and Shino Aburame. Both groups were clearly surprised to see the other there. Almost at once, Kiba and Naruto began bickering and trading insults back and forth. Rolling his eyes, Sasuke approached Hinata and Shino. 

"Did you guys happen to encounter that group from Suna?" Both Hinata and Shino nodded. 

"The red head looked pretty scary," Sakura muttered. Hinata and Shino exchanged a look.

"Did any of you get a chance to see him fight?" Shino asked. Both Sakura and Sasuke shook their heads. "He has sand in that gourd of his." Sasuke figured that out, seeing that they were from Suna. "He manipulates the sand to do what he wants." 

"But it also seems to move automatically without him even lifting a finger," Hinata continued quietly. "Another group attacked him with his back turned, and the sand came and protected him. He then used that sand to... to crush and k-kill the other group. It actually r-rained their-" Hinata stopped, and shivered, a look of fear crossing her eyes. 

"Shit." Sasuke blinked and looked at Naruto. He and Kiba had apparently stopped bickering some time ago, and had been listening to Hinata talk. 

"What are the chances we're going to end up facing them?" Sakura asked. Sasuke turned to look at her. Her tone was light, but it was obvious that she was shaking. 

"Our luck isn't exactly that good," Sasuke said. "At least we know now that they aren't exactly concerned with whether or not their opponents die."

"What's worse is that even his teammates are scared of him," Kiba said. "He threatened the two of them. If he wouldn't show them mercy, then we're definitely screwed." 

"He's past chunin level," Hinata muttered.

"This is way over our heads," Sakura said, taking a seat on the ground before her legs gave way. Everyone there silently agreed.

••••••

By the time the deadline was up, only seven teams made it into the tower. They all were lined up in another room as the Hokage gave them a speech. Behind him stood the jonin in charge of each of the teams. To everyone's surprise, the Hokage declared that since so many people made it to the tower, they would hold preliminaries to see who should go to the third part. Sasuke was alarmed. There was no mention of this in the scrolls. 

To Team 7's surprise, when the Hokage asked if there was anyone that wanted to, basically, quit, the guy who has shown them information about the other shinobi from his cards, Kabuto Yakushi, raised his hand. Both Sakura and Naruto stared at him, but Sasuke refused to raise his hand as well. He could get through this. They watched Kabuto leave, and Sasuke shook his head, when Naruto wanted to protest.

"Are you sure you don't want to leave?" Sasuke glanced at Shikamaru. Team 10 was staring at him as were others. 

"No," Sasuke said firmly, holding his head high and looking straight ahead. The Hokage waited for another moment, before he gestured to another person, and a sickly looking man came forward and announced that he was to be the protector for the next part. They listened as he said that a computer would randomly select two of them to fight each other, and he would judge if a fight was over or not. 

When he was done, each of the teams joined their jonin head on the catwalk that lined the area. Both Sakura and Naruto raced towards Kakashi.

"What should Sasuke do?" they both shouted at him. Sasuke groaned when the teams near them stared at him again. Kakashi looked at Sasuke.

"You really should have raised your hand when you had your chance," Kakashi said.

"I can do this," Sasuke said stubbornly, already imagining the lecture Harry was going to give him. Sasuke swallowed his guilt, and stared at the computer screen located above on the wall at the front.

"Is there anything he can do?" Sakura asked again.

"Abysmal taijutsu," Kakashi said with a shrug. Sasuke's eye twitched. "You also have your sharingan, so take advantage of that. You haven't learned genjutsu yet, especially with your sharingan, so you just have taijutsu, but if Rock Lee can do it, I'm sure you'll be fine." Sasuke resisted the urge to puch the smile off of his face.

"Rock Lee?" Naruto asked. They turned to stare at the green jumpsuit clad boy who was a few teams away.

"He can't use genjutsu or ninjutsu so he relies on taijutsu alone," Kakashi explained.

"I didn't know that was possible," Sakura muttered. 

"Gai somehow made it work," Kakashi said. They glanced at the also green jumpsuit clad jonin.

"You sure they aren't related?" Naruto muttered, eyeing their same bowl-cut hairstyle and bushy eyebrows.

"Positive. And if any of you even consider wearing anything close to that, I will pretend not to know you."

"Deal," the three of them echoed.

"Wait, you can do genjutsu with the sharingan?" Sakura asked. Sasuke glared at Kakashi, who just looked away, humming. "How do you even have the sharingan in the first pla-"

"Oh look, they're starting," Kakashi said. Sasuke reluctantly looked towards where he was pointing, vowing that this time, he would remember to question Kakashi about his sharingan. Everyone turned towards the screen, and watched as the computer began to run through all the names. The first name that appeared was Yoroi Akadou. Sasuke looked across towards the other catwalk, and saw that it was one of Kabuto's teammates. They looked back at the screen, and Sasuke groaned. Of course he had to be in the first battle. Ignoring Sakura's and Naruto's worried looks, Sasuke headed towards the end of the catwalk, and climbed down the stairs. Walking towards the middle, he stopped and faced his opponent. 

Immediately after the proctor said to start, Yoroi ran towards Sasuke, and attempted to grab him. Sasuke was able to throw him off, but Yoroi was in contact with him enough for Sasuke to know what his ability was. Sasuke felt his chakra being drained out of his body, and it no doubt was going to him. There goes hand to hand combat. Yoroi ran towards him to attack again, and Sasuke was forced to dodge. This went on for a few minutes, and Sasuke realized that this couldn't go on. He couldn't stay on the defensive forever. Sasuke needed a plan.

After a few more minutes of dodging, he finally came up with a plan. Rather, he _remembered_ a plan would be more accurate. 

Sasuke began throwing kunais and shurikens at him to keep him away. Yoroi knocked them away from him, so that they ended up on the ground around him. Smirking inwardly, Sasuke grabbed the kunais and shurikens that still had wires attached to them, and began to throw them towards Yoroi, who, once again, kept blocking them so they ended up beneath and behind him. Sasuke used his sharingan to ensure that all the wires were in place. Seeing that everything was ready, Sasuke threw the last few kunais, but purposefully missed so that they ended up wrapped around the railing of the catwalk.

Now outwardly grinning, Sasuke ran towards Yoroi, and threw the last kunai so that they wrapped around Yoroi's legs, too low for him to block it quickly enough. Sasuke went behind him, and cut a specific wire, which triggered the trap. The wires all around Yoroi on the floor were pulled back by another, and soon were wrapped around his legs as well. Sasuke then cut another line of wire which then dragged him backwards by his legs until he was hanging upside down from the railings. Sasuke quickly threw two more kunais with wire around the upper part of his body, and attached a couple of paper bombs to them, so they were now attached to his body. If Yoroi made any move to remove the wires, they would explode. 

Panting, Sasuke backed away from him to admire his work. He only snapped back to attention when Naruto started to cheer. Sasuke blinked and watched as the proctor, Hayato Gekko, approached them. He examined the struggling Yoroi, and then faced Sasuke. 

"Since Yoroi Akadou would be unable to continue without greatly harming himself, the winner for this round is Sasuke Uchiha." Sakura joined Naruto in his cheering and Sasuke couldn't help but grin a little. As he walked back to his group, he noticed that the Hokage was staring at him with an odd expression. Sasuke was taken aback a little, but he still nodded to him as a greeting, and received a nod and a small smile in return. When he reached Naruto and the others, Naruto thumped him on the back. 

"That was amazing!"

"Where did that come from?" Kakashi asked, looking at Yoroi. "Did you give him ideas?" he asked, looking at Naruto. Sakura also looked at Naruto. "This looked like something you would do."

"Well, I would, but I didn't."

"Either way," Kakashi said, looking at Sasuke now, "that was both humiliating and effective." Sasuke shrugged.

"It just came to me." Naruto thumped him on the back again. 

"I now consider you an official prankster," Naruto said, draping his arm around his shoulder.

"I'll pass," Sasuke deadpanned. 

"It would've been better if you did that teleportation thing again," Naruto said. Kakashi looked between them.

"What teleportation thing?" he asked. 

"That's how he got away from that creepy snake guy," Naruto said, ignoring the look from Sasuke. Kakashi glanced at Sasuke, who just shrugged.

"I have no idea how I did it," he said, turning away from them, and looking back towards the screen where the next two names came up. 

••••••

"How are you?" Harry asked. In the circular fog that hovered over the Deathly Hallows, Hermione was wiping her own tears.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, but oh Harry, I should be the one asking you that question," Hermione said. 

"Same old," Harry replied. His smile slowly left his face. "How long has it been on your end?" Hermione's smile turned saddened. 

"It's only been about four months here since you last called... and for you?" Harry looked away.

"30 years." He closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to see the expression on her face, but he could still hear her gasp.

"Harry..." Harry knew it was stupid, but he couldn't help the guilt that welled up.

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't you dare apologize Harry James Potter!" Hermione said sternly. "None of this was your fault!" Harry laughed dryly. 

"You guys keep saying that," he muttered. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and looked up at Hermione again. She had new trails of tears down her face, and from the messiness of her hair, she must have been especially frazzled today. "Have you been resting properly?" 

"Of course!" Harry raised an eyebrow and Hermione blushed. 

"I still can't believe the time difference between there and here," Harry said. "It's been almost 80 years since I got here, and for you-" 

"Only a year," Hermione muttered. Harry closed his eyes again. He ignored the stabbing in his chest, and focused on the Hallows to make sure the connection was stable.

"Harry?" Harry's eyes snapped open and he couldn't stop the grin that made its way on his face. "How are you mate?" 

"I've been worse," Harry said. Ron looked the same as ever, though Harry also noticed that he had bags under his eyes as well. "Is anyone else there?" They both shook their heads.

"Just us two," Ron said. "The kids are all back at school, and-"

"You guys can't keep spending all your time in that room. You need to rest-"

"Getting you out is more important," Ron said heatedly. Harry shook his head. 

"What will that accomplish if you guys hurt yourselves-"

"We'll worry about that," Hermione said, cutting him off.

"Besides, at least we convinced Ginny to go back to work." Harry's head snapped up.

"What was she doing before?" Harry asked quickly.

"She was basically camped out in this room."

"And the Ministry allowed it?" Harry asked. Ron shrugged.

"It involved you. What else would the Ministry do?" Harry bit his lip.

"How much do they know?" he asked.

"Just that you fell into the Veil, and we're trying to get you back," Hermione said. Harry sighed. He didn't want to know what the wizarding world would think if they found out Harry Potter was trapped in a place like this. Harry looked around and realized how late it was. "Did something happen, Harry?" Harry looked back at Hermione. He could almost feel the worry through the fog.

"What do you mean?" Harry said.

"You wouldn't waste your energy like this for no reason," Hermione said. 

"Come on mate, you can tell us," Ron encouraged.

"Was I a good father?" Ron and Hermione blinked.

"What?"

"Why are you using past tense?"

"To James, Al, and Lily, was I good father?" Harry repeated. 

"You _are_ a good father, Harry," Hermione said firmly. "James, Al, and Lily absolutely adore you."

"What brought this up?" Ron asked. "Are you taking care of-"

"I am," Harry said. "He's 12 right now, and..." 

"And?" Hermione prompted. Both of their faces seemed to come in closer. Harry opened and closed his mouth a few times. He cleared his throat. "Harry, tell us." After taking a deep breath, Harry launched into the story of what happened four years ago; the massacre. Predictably, Hermione gasped and covered her mouth with her hands, while Ron looked horrified. 

"That kid would do something like that?!" 

"That bloody tosser-" 

"Ron!" Harry said sharply. "Don't you dare call him that!" They both were taken aback by the tone of his voice. "Don't you dare say anything when you don't even know what the situation was."

"Calm down mate," Ron said slowly, exchanging a look with Hermione. Harry noticed this and frowned.

"What?" Harry asked. Hermione exchanged another look with Ron, before she turned towards Harry and smiled hesitantly.

"It's nothing, it's just that... you're getting really angry and defensive about him, almost vehemently, and maybe you’re-"

"Are you trying to say that the seal that is keeping me stuck to that scroll is affecting my mind?" Harry asked slowly.

"You said last time that you are unable to think about them negatively," Hermione said. 

"That is true," Harry said slowly. "Anytime I think of _that_ guy negatively, my head starts hurting, and I feel physically ill, but it's always obvious when I start feeling that way, and believe me, that isn't the case here." Ron and Hermione were still frowning, and Harry sighed. "He was forced to do what he did," Harry said softly. "The others eventually learned about what was about to happen, and they decided to sacrifice themselves instead, so in the end, they died on their own terms. At that point, I truly admired each and every one of them." Hermione had tears in her eyes again, and Ron swallowed and blinked a few times.

"I'm sorry, mate," he said. Harry nodded. 

"Any anger I have is only to _that_ man, not to the others. They never intentionally did anything to harm me, and some even tried to help me."

"That guy was the only one who knew how to release you, right?" Hermione asked. Harry shrugged.

"He sealed me in the first place, so I guess he should know how to release me, but..."

"He's dead." Harry nodded, and Ron snorted.

"Of course," Ron muttered darkly under his breath.

"Harry, why were you asking if you are a good father or not?" Hermione asked. Harry blinked. He almost forgot why he had initially called them.

"About Sasuke," he started. He paused to organize his thoughts. "When I first started taking care of him, he was, of course, closed off and confused, and angry, especially after Itachi told him to get stronger and go after him, that prat."

"Why the hell would he say something like that?" Ron asked. Harry shrugged.

"Unless he thought, for some reason, that Sasuke was at suicide risk..."

"It's something that would anchor him," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"I guess that makes sense," Ron said. They were silent for a minute, before Hermione snapped out of her thoughts.

"As you were saying earlier, Harry?" Hermione prompted. 

"Right... As I was saying, I tried to help him as much as I could-"

"Which I'm sure helped him a lot-" Ron blushed when Harry and Hermione glared at him. "Right, sorry, do continue."

"Anyway, after some time, he started to act more like any other kid. Hell, after he became friends with Naruto, he almost became a male version of Lily-" 

"I hope you never mentioned that to him," Hermione said sternly. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Hermione, I'm positive I know how jealousy in kids work. Me and Ginny did raise three in case you forgot." Hermione blushed. 

"I'm just saying..." she mumbled. Ron coughed. Harry shook his head. He couldn't keep wasting time like this.

"So for a few years, he acted like a normal kid. He played, did his school work-"

"Mate, willingly doing school work isn't normal-"

"Ron! Stop interrupting!" Harry grinned a little at seeing Ron's incredulous expression. "So what happened after that, Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry's grin faded away.

"I think I must have done something," Harry muttered. "He still acted the same after he graduated, but then he went on his first 'actual' mission, and when he got back, he had told me how he almost died, and I may have snapped at him about being careless..." Both Hermione's and Ron's eyes widened, but Harry continued talking before they could say anything. "After a certain _incident_ , he was himself again, but since then, he seemed to go back and forth between his old self and this new personality..." Harry trailed off. He looked up helplessly at Ron and Hermione. "Was this because I yelled at him or-"

"Harry, calm down," Ron said.

"If he was being reckless, then you did have a reason to lecture him," Hermione said.

"Recklessness is kind of in the job description," Harry muttered. Hermione closed her eyes. She had made it clear last time how she felt about the whole feudal system and how the hidden villages worked. 

"Even yelling at him wouldn't make him act bi-polar like that... unless..." Ron brightened up. "What are the chances that-"

"No," Harry stated. Ron frowned.

"You wouldn't know unless-" Harry stood up.

"I'm pretty sure I would have recognized him if that were the case!" Harry said harshly. Harry groaned and massaged his head. "Sorry Ron, it's just that, I don't think he's here. It's pointless to keep looking for him." 

"Harry," Hermione said quickly, "when he gets back, sit down with him and talk to him about your concerns. We can keep discussing this forever, but you won't get the correct answer until you ask him." Harry slowly nodded.

"I will," he mumbled. Ron and Hermione exchanged another glance. Harry blinked a few times to get them back into focus.

"I really wish I could just walk through and try to help you," Ron said softly. Harry's eyes narrowed.

"Don't you dare, Ron!" he shouted. "You'd just die, and Merlin knows where in the world you'd end up." Harry took a deep breath. "J-Just don't do that," Harry choked out. "Please don't."

"I won't," Ron said, looking guilty.

"Swear."

"I swear I won't," Ron promised. Harry smiled.

"Good... That's good..." Harry started to sway, and he could barely make out Ron and Hermione screaming his name as his vision turned black.

••••••

Ron and Hermione stared at the now darkened Veil.

"Is it possible to reconnect?" Ron asked, already knowing what the answer was going to be. Hermione slowly shook her head, and Ron wrapped his arm around her shaking shoulders. The two of them backed away from the Veil, and Hermione reapplied the wards around it. Some were to prevent people from getting too close, while others where there to monitor it for any changes in, well, anything. The final ward was an alarm. It alerted Hermione to when Harry makes a connection to the Veil. They had initially thought that that could have been a way for Harry to come back, but after a few tests, it proved futile. Harry could only communicate with it, and only if he had enough energy to make the connection and then sustain it. 

"What are we going to do, Ron?" Hermione said, burying her face into his chest. Ron patted her back and stroked her hair.

"We're not giving up," Ron said. "We will find a way to bring him back."

"Everything we found that could've worked failed though!"

"Then we'll find another way," Ron said. "We will bring Harry back." Hermione wiped her face.

"You're right. We should get going-"

"Harry's right. We need some rest first."

"But-"

"We'll be able to think better when we're rested," Ron said gently. Hermione looked like she might protest, but in the end, she nodded, and let Ron drag her away. 

"He looked so drained," Hermione said softly. Ron tightened the grip on her hand. He also noticed that. The entire time, Harry had been trembling a little. Ron gritted his teeth. He was sincerely hoping that there wasn't a time limit. Harry had been stuck there for 80 years. They needed to get him back now. 

As soon as they left the room, a figure dropped their Disillusionment Charm, and approached the Veil. They reached out, but the wards placed around it prevent them from getting any closer. Sighing, the figure dropped their hand, and turned away from the Veil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some info in case anyone missed it (as well as some clarifications): 
> 
> Harry basically fell into the Veil, and got reborn as an Uchiha right before the village was founded. Since he has the Hallows (and is MOD), he kept his memories and magic (sort of...) There's no sign of Sirius, and yes, Harry is getting weaker. 
> 
> Sasuke did apparate, but as to how, that'll be explained later.
> 
> Possible spoiler for later in the story: Harry is not really dead; his soul was sealed inside the scroll, but he had never passed away as an Uchiha, so I would not consider him to be dead. I'll mention more about it later in the story (probably after Itachi shows up)
> 
> I'll also be editing the previous chapters as someone reminded me of some plot holes I forgot about (which happens when you change the entire plot of the story 5 times. Thank you in advance for being patient ^_^.


End file.
